Anasazi (working title)
by sam938
Summary: Sam discovers a mysterious emission on Earth in the southwest canyon country that could hold the key to the disappearance of the Anasazi 800 years ago and could mean the end of SG1. S/J of course. Incomplete/ some swearing.
1. Chapter 1

Prologue.

The moon rose slowly over the canyon wall, creating a grey light that made it possible to see. The stillness settled like a shroud around him, the shadows creating visions, the monsters of night that walked the canyons.

Frank Begay shifted, putting out the last of his cigarette, and broke camp. The sandstone cliffs loomed above him, five hundred feet on either side, creating dark, silent shapes in the wash below. The white sand wash of the canyon's bottom shimmered, reflecting the stars. He barely noticed, used to the changes. He stared, looking for any sign of life. There was no one. There never was out here.

Now was the time to do this. Moonrise on the fall equinox, just like he'd been told.

He shivered against the night air. He'd camped in the canyons hundreds of times, lived this life all of his life. But tonight, something was eating at him. Something wasn't right. Tonight, something was …different.

Packed, he pulled his coat closer to his chest, shaking off the evening chill that came after sunset, as he headed down to the canyon floor. He moved silently through the sand, staying close to the edge of the canyon wall so that he wouldn't leave footprints in the wash.

He stopped suddenly, listening. He thought he'd heard - but no. There was only silence - not even a coyote howling at the moon. He shifted his backpack, making sure the contents were secure.

It would be stupid to screw up the job, just because he was spooked.

He could see the slickrock wall where he needed to start the climb. The cave should be 200 feet up. He moved silently up the sharp rise of the canyon side, his boots keeping purchase on the steep, angled rock, careful to keep his cargo safe, switchbacking along crevasses as the angle grew steeper.

Half way up, he stopped on a small plateau, taking a break amongst the bearberry bushes that were the sign that an Anasazi ruin was near.

Ruins - the homes of the Anasazi, the Ancient Enemy- the places of the dead. The places his Navajo ancestors still avoided like a plague, even now nearly 800 years after they'd been abandoned.

He grimaced. It was all stupid superstition. He'd been in hundreds of ruined sites without any problems.

He shifted uneasily as he heard a sound behind him. An owl took flight, its wings shifting the stultified air. He let out a breath, and forced himself to calm down.

Truth was, most of his visits to ruins had been very lucrative. The Anasazi had been basket makers and then potters, and had left huge clay pots when they abandoned the area. There were lots of collectors willing to pay and not ask questions. Being a pothunter had its advantages, especially when you were told where to look and knew sources that could sell stuff quietly.

Besides, his mother had been Hopi and her people believed the Anasazi were the Hopi ancestors; she'd kept hammering on the idea that his father's Navajo family was wrong; that the ruins were just remains of his ancestor's homes; not a place of the dead; not a plague, not the Ancient Enemy.

He closed his eyes, remembering. She'd also spent a lot of time telling him stories about the Katchinas, her spirits that walked the night. Not that she'd ever said the Katchinas walked the ruins, but they had walked the canyons. He remembered the ceremonies of his mother's family; remembered the celebrations, but that was child's play – it was a long time ago.

Katchinas, the Ancient Enemy – all of it. It was all stupid superstition. He'd grown up in Flagstaff off the Navajo and then the Hopi Reservation after both of his parents had died early. He didn't believe in any of their stories anymore.

But …there was still something wrong with the canyon; something wrong with the night. His instinct was screaming at him - and his instinct was very rarely wrong.

He scanned the canyon floor behind him again. The light from the moon bathed the bottom in shadow as well as light. There was nothing there.

He looked around him on the small plateau. There were animal tracks on the ground - turkey and coyote, both long gone. In the dim light, he could even make out the tracks of the deer mouse and antelope squirrel that had wandered through. There was nothing else. There hadn't been for a long time. The scrub oak and the cedar hid his view of the rest of the ledge; but there was no sound, nothing.

He was clearly nuts. He had best get this damned job over with and fast. Probably the thing that was bothering him was that this was the first time he'd been asked to *salt* a site, rather than to raid it. And the timing request - moonrise on the equinox - was bizarre.

He stared up at the cliff rising above him. The walls were sheer, vertical rock. He walked to the side of the plateau, his flashlight angled along the side and upwards. If there was a cave, if his source had been right, there should be Moki steps in the wall, hand and foot holds carved out of the rock a thousand years ago. There. There they were. He pulled out his climbing gear, using the steps for purchase as he gradually made his way up the wall, belaying himself every ten feet. It would be stupid to die out here now, just for a job.

He finally reached the ledge and attached his rope to a boulder on the side to make the climb down easier. He grinned. There was a reason why some of the museum/university types were still trying to relocate this cave. He looked around the cave entrance. The brush was dense, and seeing he was two hundred feet up, it was impossible to locate from below. If he hadn't been told where it was, he'd never have seen it. He would never have looked. He was deep in the canyon, ten miles from any road, another forty to town.

He turned on his flashlight and headed into the cave.

He stared at the ruin that hugged the back wall.

It was perfectly intact. The masonry walls were flawless, the wood roof beams as solid as if they had just been placed there yesterday, not 1000 years before.

It wasn't possible. No ruin was this clean, this perfect. And this one should be a wreck; his source said it had been excavated in the 1890s, and then lost for 100 years. That was wrong; it had to be. Someone had been here. Someone had repaired the place.

He scanned the walls carefully with his light, highlighting the red handprints that were the mark of the Anasazi on the walls, a usual sight in ruins.

Then he saw the petroglyphs.

He stared, mesmerized. Two huge spirals were pecked out of the rock. He traced his hand along the center of the largest and then saw the image of a frog at the bottom. He crouched, staring.

He turned, suddenly, looking back at the mouth of the cave. He could have sworn he heard – but no. There was nothing.

Sweating, he took off his pack. The sooner he put the pots in place, and got out of there, the better. He ducked down through the T shaped entrance to the ruin into the black of the room and set the pots in the corner, as he'd been instructed.

He turned, and his heart stopped.

There was a bright light flicking outside of the building.

He scrambled out, panicked. It wasn't just a light - the entire back wall of the cave was shimmering, a green glow filling the cave.

It was coming. They were coming. His mother's spirits, the katchinas, spirits of the earth, wind, fire, of water and animals were coming through the wall, staring at him, talking, their voices making noises he should understand but couldn't. They must be here to remind of what he'd done wrong in life, desecrating sacred ground, of what he needed to fix. They must.

They stared at him, beckoning.

He had to get out. He had to get away. He grabbed the rope. 50 feet. 50 feet down and then he'd be on the slickrock and could make his way to canyon bottom, to safety.

His hands shaking, he made it past the rope. Now he had to make it down to the canyon floor.

He looked up at the cave to see if they were following. There was nothing, the mouth was in darkness.

He took a deep breath, struggling, panic settling. There was only silence, the silence of the canyon. And yet…

There **was** something, something on the ledge. It was waiting, he could sense it, smell it. Something was tracking him. He was sure of it. He could hear it rustling in the leaves of the scrub oak.

He turned suddenly, and screamed. It wasn't the katchinas, it was a wolf with the form of a man. A Navajo witch; the source of his grandmother's insanity and his father's death. As he scrambled towards the slickrock edge, he knew that the place was cursed; and that he was cursed as well. That's why it had been lost. He should never have broken the curse.

And then, as the witch caught up to him, he knew it was over.


	2. Chapter 2

1.

The day was beautiful; the blue sky and sunshine validating Colorado's "mile high" claims of clear skies and alpine views that went on forever. The aspens were at their fall peak of golds and oranges, and the temperature back in the 50s where it belonged after a quick chill that had made the colors of the trees come out in stunning beauty.

As far as he was concerned, the chill had been worth the beauty after. It was a flat out gorgeous day.

Jack O'Neill grabbed a cup of coffee from the local Peabody's coffee shop next to his house and headed out to the base, enjoying the sun, the color, and the view of the mountains capped with early sparkling snow as he drove.

Of course, the fact that he was fully looking forward to the next few days might have had something to do with his mood as well. Just one more day on base in Cheyenne Mountain, and then, he was gone. Fishing for a week at his cabin in Minnesota. Just one more day, and then no Goa'uld's, no paperwork, no reports for a week. Yeah, he was looking at a whole week of no end-of-the-world stuff. No evil entities, no new aliens to get to know. The worst that could happen was he'd have to make friends with a blue gill, maybe even a trout.

Life was good.

He pulled into the parking lot, headed through Security, and then hit the elevator button to his office floor. After saving the world, twice, in the last month (he really should remind Hammond of that yet again) all of the members of his team deserved a break, even if they each took it in their own unique way. He was going fishing. Daniel was already off world with SG17, futzing with a new ruin that might have the potential to explain, as usual when Daniel was involved, origin of life stuff; Teal'c was visiting his son; and Carter was…

…standing in front of him, blocking his exit off the elevator, smiling.

He stared at her suspiciously. Carter, leave, and smiling were mutually exclusive terms.

He was suddenly alert. Carter only smiled at him like that when she had some new scientific doohickey to figure out or a mystery to solve, and, more to the point, only when she wanted **him** to do something about it. And that **always** involved … lots and lots of paperwork, endless reports, end-of-the-world stuff, Goa'ulds and/or new aliens. Not to mention explanations about the doohickeys that went on forever. Couldn't forget that.

Carter smiling at him definitely did not involve fish.

His survival instincts kicked in; it was fight or flight. He did the only sensible thing possible and hit the elevator button, directing it to the surface level. Flight it was. He knew when he was out-gunned and the odds were against him.

Unfortunately, she was faster. But then, she'd had plenty of time to plan the ambush while she was waiting for him to arrive. She blocked the door's closing with her hand, stepped inside, and hit the button for level 28.

She smirked at him.

He winced, and rubbed his eyes. He was in so much trouble. He finally decided to take it like the uhh... highly decorated, experienced black ops USAF Colonel that he was.

He opened one eye, and peeked hesitantly at his 2C.

"Not fishing?"

"No, sir." He watched, appalled, as she shifted into parade rest, staring in front of her at the elevator door, the perfect subordinate. OK, now that was really scary. Parade rest meant she was placating him, and that meant that whatever it was she wanted, she had him already successfully cornered and she knew it.

He swallowed. Maybe he could talk her out of whatever she had planned, if he could find out what he was up against before they got to wherever she was taking him. He tried again.

"You **sure** about… the…not fishing?"

"Yes, sir. Sorry, sir." Yeah, there it was still, the 'ultimate professional' routine. Clearly, she wasn't going to give him an inch.

He sighed and tried one more time to pry something, anything out of her about his now nearly certain fate.

"Why not?"

OK, maybe that had come out pretty pathetically, almost whiney, but he was down and nearly out for the count and he knew it.

She glanced at him, a barely restrained grin surfacing briefly, carefully squashed. "It'll be easier to explain in the Briefing Room, sir."

He groaned, defeated. "Of course it will."

The Briefing Room meant there was no way out, he was already committed, and she had him caught … hook, line and sinker. Visions of Minnesota in fall, fishing and no fish drifted regretfully away down the river of … on the other hand… uh… bank, maybe Hammond wasn't aware yet of what she…

"General Hammond's already there and waiting for us." Yeah, his 2IC was psychic. He knew that.

"Of course he is." He grimaced. Talk about kicking a guy when he was down.

He might as well find out the worst. "Does this involve a doohickey?"

At that, she laughed, all pretense gone. "I don't know yet, but I hope so, sir."

He sighed. "Of course you do."

He watched glumly as the elevator door opened to the conference floor, and gestured vaguely. "After you, Major."

She practically bounced out of the elevator, her excitement obvious, a full-blown Carter smile lighting up her expression. He shook his head, and then grinned, enjoying the sight. Carter'd probably kill him if she knew what he was thinking, but then, it was his job after all. He was supposed to be watching her six. He might as well get some fun out of this.

Grinning again, he followed after her, slowly.

After all, how bad could it be?

Three minutes later, he stared in horror at a room full of scientists, all talking animatedly, with Hammond nowhere in sight.


	3. Chapter 3

2.

A/N. If anyone out there is a physicist, I apologize in advance for the half-baked physics in this chapter..grin.. and would welcome correction. The rest of this story has been researched to death,honest. Thanks for reading.

sjsjsj

Sam glanced uncertainly at her CO. Something was definitely up. He'd been surprisingly quiet…even…polite... while she, Bill Lee, and Anthea Harris had briefed him and General Hammond.

Huh. Maybe the idea she'd had to keep the scientists in the room to a bare minimum of three, including herself had had some effect. Then again, knowing the Colonel, probably not. For him, three was a full house.

She thought back, correcting herself. The Colonel hadn't been polite at first. He'd been his normal crusty self for the first half hour, as in cynical, sarcastic and abrupt, while Harris and Lee outlined the technical details of the problem. But then he'd suddenly gotten quiet, very quiet, and actually asked a question; a reasonable question that was seriously on topic.

It'd been strange, no, more than strange. It had been flat out weird. He'd actually been interested in what they were talking about.

That is, until Lee, encouraged, began to clarify the detail. Sam grimaced. It was never good to go into scientific detail with the Colonel, unless, of course, you were deliberately **trying** to annoy him. She grinned. Yep, then it definitely worked. She counted to six before the Colonel interrupted Lee again. Huh. Six was actually pretty tolerant.

Something definitely **was** up.

"I **got** it, Lee. You detected two 'glowy emissions,'" he italicized using his fingers to make his point, "from the surface at the exactly the same time but in two different locations, both in the middle of nowhere. One in the Glen Canyon Reserve and the other in," he looked up at the presentation screen, " Butler Wash in southeastern Utah."

Bill just couldn't help himself. "They're not simple emissions, Colonel, there's no known phenomena that could create muons on Earth. Beyond cosmic rays out there," he pointed vaguely upwards, "there's no known natural occurrence. We have replicated muons under controlled conditions in accelerators like Fermi Lab or CERN, but even then there's nothing that could support the speed of decay that we observed, not to mention the lack of residue. We should be able to identify some spread according to the lines of the Michael Decay – that is, electrons, electron antineutrinos and muon nutrinos but there's nothing. It's as if –"

"Ah." The Colonel raised his hand, silencing Lee. "Carter?"

She shrugged. "Yes, sir, we've detected 'glowy emissions' from two different locations on Earth's surface at exactly the same time – exactly on the fall equinox. And there's been nothing since. We were only able to detect them due to the new Asgard technology Thor provided after the Replicator incident last month."

"You mean the present Thor gave you after you saved their little grey butts with the O'Neill actually worked?" The Colonel grinned at her, diverted.

She smiled back. "I think so, sir, but it's hard to be sure. The technology Thor provided is still within the framework of the Protected Planets treaty. It's not much more than a …home security system… that lets us know something unusual is occurring. And it did pick up something unusual; just not where we expected. The emissions are definitely from Earth, not space."

"So… maybe not so useful. You sure they're not just noise and a natural phenomena you," he glanced around the table, " scientists have never identified before?"

She grinned, relieved that the Colonel was back to his normal crusty self. She glanced at Lee and Harris, who had started to bristle under the Colonel's cynicism concerning all scientists, and interrupted Harris before the woman was annihilated.

"Yes, sir. As much as we can be."

"As much as you can be?"

She shrugged, seriously considering the question, ignoring his tone. "It is possible that they are a normal phenomena that we've never detected before. But the fact that the both occurred at the same time," she checked her notes, "on September 22 at 1930 hours exactly, makes that extremely unlikely."

"But possible."

She ground her teeth. OK, maybe she did have some sympathy for Lee and Harris; the Colonel was nothing if not persistent. She acknowledged the possibility of his question. "It is possible."

He stared at her, considering. "Uhuh. But you don't think so."

She shrugged, refusing to restate the obvious and take the Colonel's bait.

Denied a victim, the Colonel tried another tack. "So, if not natural, alien communication device?"

"Unknown, sir, but unlikely. The emissions… melted into the surrounding areas, with no directed pulse. The best way I can describe it is that it's like something or someone flicked a switch. Something was turned on, and then off, quickly. We think the energy readings are a by-product of that activity, not the event itself."

"Weapon?"

She cocked her head, thinking. It was a reasonable question, especially from a threat assessment. "Possible, but again, unlikely. The dispersion was almost instantaneous and even the Asgard technology hasn't been able to detect any additional residue."

"Some sort of new Goa'uld nastiness? "

"I don't think so."

"Then **what**?"

She grinned. "We don't know. That's what makes it interesting. It isn't like *any* alien technology we've seen so far; Asgard, Orbanean, Ancient, Replicator, Goa'uld, Tokra, Knox, Tollan ..." She paused, gathering her breath, smiling to herself at the implication. "It's a completely new phenomena."

The Colonel put his chin on his hand, considering her. "Which is why you want to check it out, even though the Asgard doohickeys say there's nothing there anymore."

She held firm. "Yes, sir."

General Hammond cocked his head at the Colonel, clearly waiting for his assessment. Sam held her breath.

The Colonel glanced at her, his eyes assessing and then turned back to Hammond. He shrugged and said mildly, "Couldn't hurt to look, sir. It's Earth, after all. "

"Agreed. I'm recalling you from leave, Colonel. If Drs. Lee, Harris and Major Carter are correct, we have an unexplained phenomenon on Earth that could be of alien origin. We need to know what it is and conduct a threat assessment."

"Understood, sir."

The General continued. "And as you will be on Earth, I want the mission to be covert. We don't need the local populations wondering why the USAF is suddenly interested in the southwestern wilderness when there's no immediate or apparent threat. Send the orders to recall Dr. Jackson and Teal'c after this briefing. They can join you and Major Carter upon their return."

The Colonel broke in. Hammond raised his eyebrows at the unexpected interruption. "Sir, about Daniel and Teal'c…"

"Yes, Colonel?" Hammond prompted the Colonel when he suddenly stopped.

"Nothing. Sorry, sir." The Colonel seemed to come to some sort of decision. His next comment was mild, but firm. "Carter, you're with me."

Lee interrupted. "Sir, Harris and I -"

Hammond broke in. "Denied. Sorry, son, but we need to be sure that this stage of the investigation is kept as quiet as possible. Major Carter will serve as scientific recon on this assignment and communicate with you as needed." He glanced around the room. "Thank you, Doctors. Dismissed."

Sam watched as Lee and Harris left the room, clearly disgruntled about not being included, but also accepting of the situation. She closed down her laptop, disengaged it from the conference room's projector, and waited.

General Hammond turned to the Colonel. "I'm sorry about revoking your leave, Jack. But all other SGC teams are either off world or scheduled for departure. I don't want to reschedule a mission. We're shorthanded as it is. And if there is alien technology on Earth, SG1 is the most experienced team to understand it and nullify the situation. "

"Not a problem, sir. I understand."

Hammond sighed. "Good. Keep me informed." With that he stood, gesturing them to remain seated as he left the briefing room.

"Sir?"

"Yeah, Carter?" The Colonel looked up thoughtfully from his notepad, where he had been...who knows what, but she suspected doodling. He was clearly distracted.

"I- nothing, sir."

She waited.

"So, Carter, off to the southwest."

She swallowed. "Yes, sir, sorry, sir, but as you can see it is important."

"Of course I can." His words were mild, but his tone conveyed clearly enough to her that he was disgruntled about the entire situation. She winced. Truth be told, she was feeling kind of guilty about getting the General to revoke his leave, but it was just so-

"-damned fascinating, right?" She started as the Colonel finished her thought for her. He grinned at her knowingly. "Got a plan?"

She smiled back, relieved. "Yes, sir. Both signatures are in desert country, the red rock canyons of the southwest Four Corners, and even though the Butler Wash location is actually the more isolated of the two, it's more easily accessible. I think we should start there."

"Nope."

She stared. "Why not?"

"Because I prefer the other."

She cocked her head, surprised. " I don't think you understand, sir. Glen Canyon Reserve is over a million acres of wilderness. The canyon itself stretches out for nearly two hundred miles, just in the north south direction. It's huge. The GPS location we've identified is totally isolated within that, in a tributary canyon called Davis Gulch, one of over 80. And given that Glen Canyon has been dammed, the source of the emission is probably underwater. It will be a lot more difficult to investigate that site as it's going to require wet suits and -"

He interrupted. " I understand perfectly, Carter. Glen Canyon and its tributaries were drowned in the late 50s due to the 'damning' of the Colorado River, if you'll pardon the pun, in order to provide water for the LA types, and Vegas. It's known as Lake Powell, although it's not really a lake. What it is is a huge, humongous reservoir, as you said, over two hundred miles long."

She stared at him, slightly shocked at his knowledge of the area and then gave it up. Who knew what the Colonel was going to fixate on and remember… or why.

He seemed slightly surprised himself that he'd said so much. He clarified. "The 'lake' itself is now a recreation spot for sports.. uhh.. people." He paused. "Actually pretty popular for that part of the world."

"Sir, the fact that it's a popular place is why we shouldn't start our investigation at the at that site. Butler Wash is totally isolated. "

His smile was intoxicating. "Nah, Carter. You've got it wrong. Even Lake Powell is empty wilderness. Sure, there are tourists there in the summer, but those 'million acres' you mentioned around it are desolate and wild, no matter what time of year. Not many people visit that, ever. And it's mid-October. The tourists will be gone from Powell and the water still warm." He cleared his throat. "And there are fish in that lake."

He grinned again, thinking. "Yep, blue skies, water, red rocks, isolation, and fish. I can handle that."

So… that was her answer. He remembered that Glen Canyon had been flooded because it was now… great fishing.

She nearly rolled her eyes, but caught herself at the last minute. He was her CO, after all.

She grimaced. She should know by now that he wouldn't take a scientific mission very seriously. Damn. And he was clearly not taking this one seriously at all. She thought back to when he'd started actually being **polite** in the briefing. It was right after Lee had mentioned locations and Glen Canyon. Double damn. He really, really, really wasn't taking this seriously at all.

She cleared her throat. "You **do** know this is not a vacation, right, sir?" Oh jeez, where had that come from? Her tone had been… annoyed. She was five seconds away from justifiably being reamed out for insubordination.

But the Colonel just grinned. "Ya think?"

Oh yeah. She was so going to pay for the Colonel being recalled on what he thought was probably a colossal waste of time. She could see it right now.

But it **wasn't** a waste of time. She was sure there was something; something that might be useful. There was something there. Something interesting. She felt it in her bones. And the data was there - she was … nearly positive that the energy signals couldn't possibly be natural – that they were alien in design.

On the other hand…she was **nearly** positive, not completely. She shook her head, thinking. This was Earth, for heaven sakes. Maybe she'd just been on too many missions with too many energy signatures she couldn't understand and had jumped the gun. Maybe, maybe … the Colonel had a point. He'd asked the right questions, and she had to agree with his initial threat assessment. On the face of it, it was negligible. But the data…

She started, suddenly surprised out of her funk when the Colonel got up and pulled his briefing notes together. "Logistics details to me in an hour, Major. We need to go …fishing. "

As he rambled out of the room, grinning, she did roll her eyes.

Fishing. Yeah, that was terrific. They were going fishing. She sighed, shook her head to clear it, and started planning logistics.


	4. Chapter 4

3.

Jack reeled his line back in, looked around him, and grinned. The houseboat was great, even if he did say so himself. A Discovery XL Platinum 59 footer - with controls on the upper and lower decks along with a grill and full patio on upper level; complete kitchen and four bedrooms, two baths and a living room - was clearly essential for this mission. Yep, it was essential. And after he'd pulled her out of the Bullfrog Marina and into the Lake, the quiet and isolation of the place itself had hit him as well, relaxing him instantly.

It wasn't the forests of Minnesota, of course. He looked around; in fact, there wasn't a tree for miles. But Powell had its own beauty. Navajo Mountain loomed over everything, its distant peak already covered in snow, a stunning sight. But it was the canyon itself that was spectacular, the sandstone walls towering two hundred feet above him on either side, their orange and reds reflecting almost as an optical illusion in the glassy calm of the water. It went on as far as the eye could see. Bright blue skies, sunshine, clear blue water and red rocks for miles.

Yeah, it was great; definitely great. He grinned and threw out his line again.

Great…except there was that pesky fact that he was pretty sure Carter was pissed at him. Very, very seriously…pissed, annoyed, angry, irritated… had he mentioned pissed? - yeah, he had- at **him**.

Maybe should recheck that.

He called down to the houseboat's lower level. "Hey, Carter, any news from Daniel or Teal'c yet?"

"No."

Huh. Total silence. Not even a strangled "sir", although to be fair he had told her to lose the "sirs" in range of the civilian population. But they were out of the marina and in the middle of Lake Powell. He had been right; the tourists were long gone. Their houseboat was the only one on the water.

There was literally no one around for miles. And still no "sirs". As evidence it was damning. She was seriously pissed.

Which was really totally unfair. He was completely innocent.

He sighed, took a sip of beer, rearranged his feet on the bannister, and cast his line back in. He thought back on the last 10 hours. Okay, maybe he could have … slightly … annoyed her when he he'd threw out all of her recommendations for logistics and travel. She'd wanted to helicopter into the Air Force base at Moab and grab a jeep from there, bivouacking in the side canyon near to the coordinates they'd identified as the emission's source.

He'd stopped that idea dead in its tracks. Sure, flying the copter might have been fun, but a jeep was NOT his truck, and he wanted his truck. If he was going to be in the Arizona and Utah canyon country, his truck was a necessity.

So he'd shut her plans down. Immediately.

OK, maybe he could have been a little more … politic.

"_Negative. We're not doing any of that. No copter, no jeep. We're driving."_

_She looked surprised and then annoyed. Yeah, now that he thought about it, that was the first time he'd seen her "annoyed" expression. But she'd hidden it quickly, swallowing before she responded. _

"_Sir, it's a ten hour drive, minimum."_

"_Eight and a half if we take I 70 across the mountains."_

_She tried again. "With my plan we're there in four hours."_

_Ok, that comment had called for some major offense, simply because he knew she was right. He'd let Daniel and Teal'c follow her plan when they got back just to get them to the location faster. But Carter and he were taking the truck. _

"_You want to define covert for me, Major?"_

_She grimaced again. Yeah, maybe that had irritated her. "Getting to Moab via copter won't raise any red flags, sir. And a jeep out in that country won't even be noticed. The emission's signature location is surrounded by literally hundreds of miles of isolation, not just on the Lake but the entire area. No one will notice us. We can be at the targeted site by noon with this plan."_

"_Not going to happen, Carter."_

_She tried again, a determined tone in her voice. It reminded him of the time that she'd rigged the power source with her doppelganger from the alternate reality – the tone that said "we will do this, no matter what." He grimaced._

"_Sir, time is of the essence if we're going to investigate this. We're on the roster, scheduled for a mission next week. "_

"_I know there's a deadline. But nothing happened at these sites for the last three weeks while Lee and Harris were 'identifying' them. As far as we know, nothing has happened before. The likelihood is that nothing will soon, at least not in the eight hours or so it will take us to drive."_

"_But..."_

_Cater at her most determined was a force not to be reckoned with. He bailed, knowing if he let her, she'd argue him out of his plan. It was inevitable. Best to get out now. _

"_The truck goes or I don't, Carter. That's final."_

Yeah, that **could** have bothered her. Maybe.

He thought back. During the seven-hour trip out (yeah, he'd pushed it a bit) in **his** truck to Lake Powell, she'd grumbled at him occasionally, but he'd expected that. He'd been prepared. Carter wasn't used to breaks. He'd been cheerful, helpful and tolerant of the science stuff she occasionally spouted even though it had been painful. Huh. He really deserved some serious credit there, but he hadn't gotten any. In fact, now that he considered it, she had seemed to get even more annoyed with him the more cheerful he was.

Still, she **had** grudgingly agreed that the scenery was spectacular. She'd been quiet for the first three hours of the drive. Powell was on the western side of the Rockies, the mountains a massive barrier between the eastern Front Range cities of Colorado Springs, Denver, Boulder and Fort Collins. To get to Powell, they needed to cross the high mountains and then head down into red rock country. She'd stayed silent for the first three hours of the trip, ignoring the Eisenhower Tunnel and saying nothing as they drove through the high country ski towns of Frisco, Breckenridge, and Copper Mountain, and continued to ignore him and the scenery all the way through Vail Pass.

It wasn't until they hit Vail Valley that she finally acknowledged his presence, even though he was the one driving.

"_Wow." _

_He grinned, staring at the mountains surrounding them on both sides. The valley was covered with gold, the aspens huge bands of color for miles, interspersed with the green of the pines._

"_I __**told**__ you we needed the truck."_

_She grinned back at him. "It's stunning. I don't think I've ever been up here when the aspens were at their peak."_

_He suddenly started to relax, enjoying Carter enjoying the view. He cleared his throat. "Yes, well, if I recall correctly, you rarely get out of Cheyenne Mountain, let alone Colorado Springs, Carter. There's such a thing as a break."_

"_Sir, this isn't a -"_

"_Jeez, Carter. No reason not to enjoy it while you can." When it looked like she was going to argue with him again, he changed the subject back to the view and tried again to get her focus off the mission and onto enjoying the day. "Wait until we get past Glenwood Springs. The country opens up and the color's amazing. The scrub oak will be bright red, along with the gold of the aspen and the green of the pine. Not to mention that the red rocks of the canyons."_

She'd subsided, looking at the view. They made their way through Glenwood Springs canyon and Grand Junction, with the buttes of the Colorado National Monument stark and compelling, and then headed into the wild, open country of Utah's high mesas. He thought they'd even reached a détente of sorts until they hit the supermarket.

Uhuh. Yep, now that he thought about it, she had been not just annoyed but appalled when he stopped in the tiny supply town of Hanksville, population 250, to get groceries.

"_Sir, there are plenty of MREs. I packed them myself."_

"_Along with the kitchen sink, apparently."_

_His truck was completely crammed with stuff. There'd been barely enough room for his fishing gear. _

"_Sir –"_

"_Ah - enough, Carter." He raised his hand to stop her argument. "I am not eating that crap for the next week."_

_She almost glared at him, but caught herself. "Respectfully, sir, we're on a mission."_

_He shrugged. "Doesn't mean we can't eat well." He cut off any other possible protests by turning his back and heading into the market. _

_She had followed him in finally, catching up with him while he was deciding between one or two cases of beer. He'd already stocked up on steaks, potatoes, ribs, snacks, green stuff for Carter, fruit for Teal'c, and coffee for Daniel. Yeah, they had most of what they'd need for a week. He decided on two cases of beer. He could always take it home with him and there was no way to resupply easily on the Lake. _

_He glanced up at Carter. She was staring in horror at the shopping cart. He glanced at it. Maybe it was a little full but…_

"_Colonel, we can't possibly take all this. It's nearly all perishables. They'll spoil at the campsite, and the camp stove can't handle steaks and ribs and… god... what __**else**__ is in there?"_

_She was rambling. He might as well get the rest out while she was in shock. "We're not camping, Carter."_

"_What?"_

_Yep, she did look like she was a little bit in shock. He decided to break it to her gently. "I said we're not camping, Carter. I rented a houseboat with a speedboat attached. We pick it up in an hour or so at the Bullfrog Marina."_

"_You're taking a __**houseboat**__ on a mission?"_

"_Hey- shush." He looked around, but luckily there was no one close by enough to have heard her. _

"_Watch it, Carter. And lose the 'sir' and 'Colonel' in public."_

_She stared at him, then back at the cart, and then back at him again. He wasn't sure, but he thought she might have turned a slight tinge of green when she realized he was stacking cases of __**beer**__ on the bottom shelf of the cart. Yeah, well, stocking up on alcohol wasn't necessarily part of missions, so he could understand her confusion. But her green tinge did make him remember something._

_He looked up, grinning. "I got your salad stuff. You know, cucumber, spinach, all that green rot. I didn't forget so you don't need to worry."_

_She went absolutely still, silent. And then suddenly turned. "I'll be in the truck."_

Yeah, breaking the houseboat to her like that might not have been one of his best ideas.

But in his defense, they bivouacked all the time off world. He saw no reason to be uncomfortable on this little "mission". Here, they were nicely set up with REAL beds on the lake, on a boat, with all accouterments, not scrambling up some godforsaken cliff to get to even ground where they'd have to put up a tent, scramble down for water… yadda, yadda.

What was the fun in that? They did it on a daily basis.

No, it couldn't be that she actually wanted to bivouac… yet… again. She must see the advantage in the houseboat, even if it did mean it would be another four hours on the lake and in tributary canyons before they got to the emission location. Nope, she couldn't want to bivouac so much that she was unhappy with the houseboat.

Of course, her dislike of the houseboat might have something to do with the little incident that occurred while they were renting it. But he was sure .. uhh.. pretty sure she hadn't heard that interaction. Once he'd signed the papers to rent the boat, Carter had disappeared into its depths with SGC equipment in hand and hadn't come out.

He grimaced. If she had heard his conversation with who was it … Tom… he'd have to explain. She didn't understand the macho western culture and curiosity of some old timers who lived in this part of the west. Although now that he considered it, Tom looked like he was in his thirties. Well, anyway. The guy… yeah, Tom, who had rented the houseboat to them, had offered to help load supplies and started asking questions.

_Tom handed him another sack of groceries, looking concerned. "Mr. O'Neill, you do know that the boat's only available for this week? There's a lot of food here. I have to dry dock her after your trip. The weather will be too bad."_

"_Yeah, Tom. Got it. Thanks." He grabbed another bag and put it on the counter. _

_Tom glanced around mildly, the carts now empty. "Lot of stuff, but I think we've finally gotten the last of it."_

_Jack looked up quickly, worried that the amount of equipment Carter had brought with might have raised a red flag. He blurted out the first thing that came to his mind. "Yeah, well, you know…the little woman and all. Uh… women…they need their …doohickeys and stuff. Keeps them happy."_

_He was almost sure he'd heard Carter mumble "Oh for gods sakes" from the back of the boat but he wasn't positive. Actually, it was unlikely. She usually used "for crying out loud" like he did. Yeah. Couldn't have been her. _

_Tom, on the other hand, looked surprised at his comment. "Your wife likes to fish?"_

_He seemed to back up at Jack's surprise. "I mean there's just a lot of fishing equipment here. I thought maybe your wife likes to use it. "_

_Jack stuttered, badly. "She's -uh. No. Actually, she doesn't fish. I'm hoping she'll like it after this trip. That's why…" Jack gestured around the room. _

_Tom grinned. "Ah I got it. Lots of options."_

_Jack had to agree. "Oh yeah, lots."_

They'd had a perfectly soothing conversation after that about fishing the Lake. And he **had** put away the groceries; surely he had to get some points for that, although he'd left his fishing gear in the middle of the cabin. He'd avoided Carter since. It was safer .. uhh.. better that way. She'd calm down; he was sure of it. And he wasn't sure she'd heard the conversation anyway. And anyway, what else could he have said? This was a **covert** mission. No need to raise suspicions.

She'd finally made reappearance when he pulled the boat out of the marina, staring at him.

"_Are we headed toward Davis Gulch?" _

_He looked up, smiling. "Nah. I thought we'd wait for Daniel and Teal'c. I just wanted to take her out a few miles into the nearest tributary. Fishing will be better there." _

_She rubbed her hands over her face "Of course it will. I'm going to go sort equipment." _

"_Sure." He smiled at her, excited to finally be out on the Lake. Yeah, blue skies, red rocks, water, and silence. All he needed was… _

"_Hey, Carter, could you grab me a beer? I can't get up while I'm piloting this pup."_

Yeah, she just must not have heard him, in the back of the boat.


	5. Chapter 5

4.

Daniel groaned as he grabbed his gear out of the back of the jeep he and Teal'c had requisitioned at the Air Force base at Moab. It'd been a long day. It'd been nearly 6 p.m. off world when the recall had come in. So, he'd now been up, counting the trip here and the trek back to the gate, for nearly 24 hours. Ugly.

Gatelag was absolutely the worst.

And besides that, he'd been on vacation, damn it. He'd wanted to see the ruins on P3X787 for at least six months. Even Rothman had seen them, and come back ecstatic.

He'd just finally gotten to have a look – he agreed with Rothman, definitely Mayan in origin, but there were some really interesting anomalies - and if he had just had just been able to spend even a little more time… but he hadn't.

Whatever it was that had made Hammond and Jack recall them had to be important. Apparently, there was some sort of emergency on Earth, for gods sakes. That had to take precedence. Even more telling, no one had said a word about what said emergency was. Jack and Sam were already gone and Hammond was in some sort of meeting when he'd gated back. Harriman had directed him to a copter, where Teal'c was waiting. After what was a just … lovely… flight to Moab, they'd been directed to the jeep with instructions to Bullfrog Marina.

Two hours later he still had no idea what they were doing here. He looked around. Redrock country. The vista went on for miles, red and orange sandstone cliffs thousands of feet high. Aspects of the country reminded him of Abydos, but no, that was wrong. This was high desert. There was nothing like this on Earth, or anywhere else he'd been that was comparable. It was unique.

He shook his head, trying to get out the images of the landscape from his mind. The landscape wasn't important. What was important was getting to where Sam and Jack were and identifying how he could help solve whatever problem was facing them all. On Earth. He felt a chill run back down his spine. Emergencies shouldn't be on Earth. Anywhere else in the universe, yeah. But not here. Not on home ground.

He looked around for evidence of Jack and Sam, and then stared in disbelief as Jack calmly docked a houseboat, and waved them onto it.

He looked at Teal'c, who stared back at him equally confused. Well, as much as Teal'c ever looked anything but stoic, but yes, he could tell. They were both mystified. Daniel shook his head and headed into the boat.

"Jack, what's up – Daniel stopped, stunned, and finally commented - and uh, what is all this?"

He stared at the scene in front of him, sweeping his hand around the room to encompass the state of the cabin, shocked at the amount of food and beer and the huge pile of fishing equipment lying in the middle of the room. "What – uhh.."

He gave it up. It was too impossible to decipher.

It was Jack after all.

Jack just shrugged. "Glad you made it alright. I think Carter's assigned you—he motioned towards Teal'c - to the bedroom on the right after the kitchen. You're on the left of him, Daniel. I think I've got the lower level next to the engines, but I'm not really sure."

Daniel ignored the instructions. He cleared his throat and asked the most pressing question, one nothing he could imagine could explain.

"Why are we on a **houseboat**?"

He felt justified at his confusion when Teal'c immediately scanned the room in the same way Daniel had, the way the Jaffa had hundreds of times when expecting an enemy. Satisfied that there was nothing of import, Teal'c also stared at Jack.

"I also do not understand, O'Neill. Are we not on a mission?"

Jack shrugged from his new, casual and now carefully relaxed location on the couch, feet up on the coffee table in the middle of the room, and took a sip of beer. Daniel stared at him in shock, wondering if he and Teal'c should call the SGC. Jack **never** drank on a mission.

This was just too weird.

Jack finally answered Teal'c. "It's a **covert** mission. No reason not to be comfortable. There's steaks, ribs, potatoes, beer and -"

Daniel broke in, unable to take it in. "You're taking a **houseboat** on a mission?"

Jack sighed. " A **covert** mission, Daniel. We have to behave like normal folks. But yeah, Carter was kind of surprised by that too."

Daniel looked around quickly. "Where **is** Sam?"

"Lower level. She's commandeered one of the bedrooms down there for a command center. I think she's …connecting things and sorting stuff."

"She knows about this and she hasn't killed you yet?"

At that, a slightly sheepish expression crossed Jack's face, only to be quickly stopped. He took another sip of beer.

He finally commented, "She, uh, might have been… a bit", at Daniel's knowing look he hurriedly continued, "you know, just … uhh…slightly…whatever."

He sighed. "Don't worry. She'll get over it."

"Uhuh." Daniel stared him down, exasperated. He flopped down on the couch next to Jack, leaving all of his gear on the floor next to… fishing stuff. Teal'c seemed to be tired as well as he commandeered the chair directly across from the couch, which was pretty amazing. Teal'c was never tired.

Daniel rolled his head back against the headrest of the couch, appreciating the relief of neck pain, and then stated the obvious, too tired to do anything else.

"Has she mentioned you're not taking this mission seriously?"

Jack mumbled into his beer. "Not exactly."

"What **has** she said?"

Jack grimaced. "I don't think she's talking to me right now." He paused. "I could order her to, but…"

Teal'c broke in. "That would not be wise, O'Neill."

Jack looked up at Teal'c for validation. "See? That's what I thought."

"Indeed. Major Carter is an essential member of SG1. Her participation would be significantly hindered due to the probable courts martial that would result on your world should you order her to voice her opinion of your plan."

Jack stared at the Jaffa, speechless.

Daniel broke in. "I'm with Teal'c on this one. And I'm not surprised she's not talking to you. Nothing new in that for any of us when you decide to go on one of your starts."

"Hey, that is so, so wrong - and it's not my start anyway. It's Carter's."

"Sure it is." Daniel sighed, rubbing his eyes. It was really, really late. And Jack at his best in denial was never easy.

He regrouped. He was never going to get to bed if he didn't. And from the looks of things here, no one was going to die… or… whatever … in the next six hours, except possibly Jack, if Sam ever decided to come out of the lower level. Which all and all seemed like a pretty fair deal.

He needed sleep. He sighed, stared at Jack and summarized. " Okay, just for the record, let's review. You had us recalled many, many, many hours ago to take on a mission and arranged emergency transport to get us here as fast as possible."

He looked around the room, still not quite believing what he was seeing. "And in that many, many, many hours while we were traveling here, instead of recon, you bought groceries, rented a houseboat and went fishing?"

Jack broke in. "That is **so** not fair. I didn't recall you, Hammond did. And Carter and I needed to do something while we were waiting for you. Besides, we did spend seven hours driving here as well."

Daniel glared a Jack, unable to take in his last comment. Teal'c and he had been on emergency status all day. "You *drove* here with Sam but you had us take emergency transport?"

"I wanted the truck."

Daniel rubbed the bridge of his nose, with his hand, and groaned. "You are so not taking this mission seriously."

"I am too."

"You're not. I know that and I don't even know what it **is** yet."

" I am."

"Not."

"Am."

"Three words, Jack. Houseboat. Fishing. Beer. I think that covers it all."

"Hey, I didn't charge any of it to the AF if that's what you're worried about. Although I do think half way decent accommodations every now and then is a reasonable thing to expect."

"Not the point, Jack."

Teal'c interrupted, clearly annoyed with both of them. "What is the objective of this assignment, O'Neill? I had hoped to spend more time with Ryac."

Jack looked up, surprised. "Didn't Hammond brief you?"

Daniel answered. "No. He said you and Sam would brief us when we got here. What is this about, anyway? And I agree with Teal'c. It had better be good. The ruins on P3X787 are really amazing."

Jack sighed and took a sip of his beer. " You guys want something to drink?"

"O'Neill. We require information not sustenance."

Daniel grinned. Trust Teal'c to get to the heart of the matter.

He watched with interest as Jack grimaced and gave in. "Carter can give you the details, but it's basically a science project of hers."

Hell. Trust Jack to only sort of give in. "Oh c'mon, Jack, just get to the poi-"

Jack defended himself at what was clearly an unwarranted accusation from his point of view. " I **did **get to the**…** I mean I am getting to the point. It's one of Carter's science projects. Hammond thought it was important enough that he recalled both of you and me."

At Daniel's look of annoyance, Jack continued. "I'm serious."

Daniel's irritation deflated and turned into concern. "Okay… so…" He waited for more.

Jack shrugged and took a sip of beer.

"Jack."

"I'm getting to it, Daniel. Give me second here." He put down the beer, rubbed his hands through his hair and regrouped. "Okay, here's the basics. The science geeks at the SGC discovered some new … energy signatures… from two sites on Earth that happened at the exact same time and date. They thought they could be alien in origin. Carter said it's nothing like she's ever seen before anywhere, even - he raised a hand toward the sky - out there. Hammond wanted us to check it out quietly." He sighed. "So, here we are."

Daniel blew out a breath, still annoyed. "Look, if this is just a scientific exploration and Sam has you to watch her back while she works, and you're both here to make a threat assessment, why recall Teal'c and me?" He gestured around the room. "And why all this?"

"Hammond wanted *SG1*, Daniel, not half of it."

"OK, I get that Hammond and **you,**" he looked at Jack pointedly, "recalled us. But it was for a **mission**, Jack. What the hell is the rest of this?"

Daniel paused, shook his head and looked around again. "Wait a minute. I get it. This is your version of acting out. You're pissed that **you** were recalled from leave for a science expedition and you're taking it out on Sam."

"No…" Jack's tone was explosive and annoyed. "I really… no, that is not it. And ok, maybe I was annoyed about being recalled, but that's not what this is about. So were you. Didn't I just hear you whine about having to leave P3X whatever?"

Daniel sighed, threw his head back against the sofa cushions and raised his glasses, rubbing the bridge of his nose. "Alright, maybe you have a point." He looked at Teal'c for validation, grimaced, and then continued. "OK, maybe a good point.

"But ….**we** didn't deliberately delay a mission start for ten hours and -excuse me- he looked around him again, slightly stunned – rent a houseboat? What's going on?"

" Jeez, Daniel, give it a rest. The ten hours were in the noise, given that Carter and I had to wait for you anyway. So I thought driving the truck out made sense, especially if we do have to head to the second location or split up for any reason." He gestured around the room. "And all of this - well, **you** want to camp and eat MREs all week when there's another alternative? We did that all last month."

"And?" Daniel waited for the rest Jack wasn't telling him.

Jack finally caved in. "In my opinion, the mission is not urgent, Daniel. Important, but it's not urgent from an initial threat assessment. There's only been one documented occurrence and that was three weeks ago, and nothing since. But **Carter** thinks it's important and wanted to go, and I thought we should be there as well in case there was something off. "

He looked back at Daniel. " She is almost always right about this stuff." He grimaced. "On the other hand, it is Earth and nothing's happened, so it might just be a real scientific anomaly, which would amuse Carter in any case."

He sighed. "I just thought - well, the last month has been tough on all of us. You had your … whatever out, bugs in a tin can nearly ate Teal'c and me, and Thor evidently fed Carter yellow glop for the whole mission to the Asgard home planet. We all need some downtime. You guys headed out, and I was going to head up to Minnesota, but Carter insisted on checking out the new Asgard tech and hunkering down in the Mountain. With this, I figured she could … investigate …and we, well, I could -"

Teal'c finished. "- slay two foul with one rock."

Jack threw his head back on the sofa cushions. "It's kill two birds with one stone and yes, that was what I was thinking."

Daniel grinned, knowingly. "So you thought Sam needed to take a break and decided to use this expedition as your way to get her to do that and have some downtime toge... uh, forget that part."

Daniel sighed. He must be more tired than he thought. He would never normally confront Jack directly about the growing closeness between Jack and Sam. Not that there was anything specific or obvious that he could point to - just little things, like Jack's current concern about Sam. And he was pretty sure that both Jack and Sam were oblivious anyway. Confronting the man would just raise unnecessary hackles, and Jack and he were grumpy enough. It was weird, though. Teal'c and he were unnecessary for the expedition, they had been happily relaxing already, and this situation would have given Jack a perfect excuse to get to know Sam better, away from the Mountain.

He stared at Jack. "You know, I really don't see why you need us."

Jack defended himself. "I was thinking of you guys too. There are lots of ruins around here for you to play in and Teal'c has been wanting to see more of Earth for a while."

Daniel didn't buy it. "Uhuh. And…"

Jack sighed. "Look, Daniel, even with the orders, if you and Teal'c weren't here, there'd be talk about the houseboat. This way… well, there'll be talk about it anyway, just not…you know."

Huh. That was interesting. Maybe Jack was less oblivious than he thought. Or maybe it **was** just concern for Sam's reputation that was driving the man.

Jack waited as the silence settled around them and finally gave ground when he and Teal'c continued to regard the man seriously. " We do need to check out Carter's emissions. If there's nothing of value at the site she's identified after we look into it tomorrow, I'll ask Hammond to recall all of us."

He glanced at Daniel. "You can go back to your rocks on whatever." He opened his eyes to stare at Teal'c in the chair across from him. "And you can go back to Chulak."

Teal'c stared back at Jack, tilting his head in acknowledgement of the conversation. "That will not be necessary, O'Neill. If Major Carter wishes to explore this area, I will be honored to join her."

"Thanks, Teal'c." Jack looked carefully at Daniel. "I bought coffee, Daniel. There's even a grinder in the kitchen."

Daniel leaned his head back against the couch, rubbed his eyes and admitted defeat. He sighed. "You know, I've never had time to actually explore out here, even though this area houses some of the most ancient archaeological ruins in North America. The Anasazi were here for nearly 1000 years and then -"

Jack interrupted. "Ack. Does that mean you're on board?"

Daniel grinned. "I think I was already onboard. It is a houseboat."

"Funny." Jack sighed and put his head back on the couch, almost replicating Daniel's posture. He took another sip of his beer as silence began to settle. "I'm happy to know that we never had this conversation."

Daniel answered. "Me too."

Teal'c responded. "As am I."

Jack opened one eye. "Just to be clear. Carter never hears about this."

Teal'c broke in, staring at the door. "O'Neill…"

Jack looked up, horrified, and then stood up, nearly spilling his beer. "Uh, Carter. Nice to see you've decided to join the living rather than the doohickeys. I was just updating Daniel and Teal'c on the plans."

Daniel noted that she smiled at Teal'c and him, ignoring Jack. Not good.

"I'm glad you're here. I can use the help."

Jack stared at her, exasperated. "You've been down in that dungeon of a command room you've set up for nearly three hours and now you decide to show up? How long have you been listening?"

She shrugged and finally looked at Jack. "Heard pretty much all of it, sir, since Teal'c and Daniel came onboard."

"Ah. " Jack looked totally flummoxed.

Daniel started to grin and then stopped immediately when he saw Sam glance his way. He felt some sympathy for Jack; even though the man was certifiable sometimes (house boats came immediately to mind), he had meant well, although admittedly walking a pretty fine line. Jack could order her on a mission, but he couldn't regulate her down time. This had been both, and from Jack's expression, he could tell the man knew he was on the edge. Daniel sighed. It was so damned annoying. Any minute now Jack was going to revert to the Colonel, Sam to the Major, and the whole situation would get … testy.

He broke in, trying to inject some humor into the situation. "At least she's talking to you, although your plan's probably shot to hell."

Jack grimaced, not amused. "She my subordinate. She has to talk to me. "

The glare Sam sent both of them shut them both up, even Jack. Daniel was impressed. Even six months ago, Sam would never have sent a look like that in Jack's direction. Of course, she was going to freak out any minute now, once she realized she'd just reamed out her CO, even if it was non-verbally. And Jack was looking pretty stunned himself, almost as if he couldn't believe that she'd … sort of… yelled at him. Daniel sighed. He waited for the inevitable cold professionalism to kick in, and then watched with surprise as something indefinable passed between Jack and Sam.

He was even more impressed when Sam finally turned away from Jack, shook her head as if to clear it and commented mildly, "Even though I don't think any of you understand the importance of this expedition, I do appreciate what you're doing. Thank you."

Jack stared at her in shock. Daniel just grinned. It was Teal'c who broke the silence. "You are most welcome, Major Carter."

She smiled back at him and then cocked her head at Jack. "Sir, do you think we could move the boat out towards Davis Gulch now?"

Jack was still shocked, but rallied quickly, clearly relieved. "Uh… sure."

"And didn't you get some steaks?"

Daniel grinned at her. He got up and started rummaging through the houseboat's refrigerator. "There are steaks? I've been living on crappy rations for what seems like a year."

Jack responded annoyed. "That's what I said. And yes, you have been, actually we all have been, living on them for over a month. And of course there are steaks. I **told** you. Many, many steaks. And there's a grill on the upper deck of the boat. There are potatoes and -"

"Cool." Daniel interrupted and continued rummaging in the fridge, ignoring Jack, but turned and smiled at Sam as she moved towards him.

"So, Sam, Jack hasn't been very clear about what you've found. Tell me about it." She grabbed staples from his hands and started outlining her findings as they began preparing a very late dinner.

Daniel watched out of the corner of his eye as Jack shook his head at the sight of them preparing dinner and finally rambled away to start up the engines and undock from the marina, Teal'c in tow.

"O'Neill."

"Yeah, Teal'c?"

"I am unfamiliar with this mode of transport. There are no bodies of fresh water of this magnitude on Chulak."

"Ah. Well, it's great, T. You'll love it. This is not just any houseboat. **This** is a Discovery XL Platinum houseboat. All the whistles and bells. 59 footer; four cabins, two baths, upper and lower level deck control operations, full kitchen, grill, and -"

"O'Neill."

"Yeah?"

" Whistles and bells are irrelevant. How does one operate this vehicle?"

"Ah. Well, ok. First, it's a boat, T. Not a vehicle. Different-"

"The nomenclature is also not relevant, O'Neill. How does it function?"

"Ok. Got it. Let me show you how she cruises."

Daniel grinned to himself. Trust Teal'c to get Jack back on track.


	6. Chapter 6

6.

A/N. While this is a WIP, 20 chapters are nearly done and the remainder plotted. I'm revising some, depending on comments (thank you!), so some chapters will be posted more slowly than others. Thanks to Hedwig for helping me clarify this chapter through a comment. And thanks always to Nicimac, for her terrific beta-ing! Oh, for adventure folks, the action starts in chapter 8, so not too far away.

sjsjsjsjsj

Jack stared from the top deck of the houseboat at the early morning sky, what there was of it, and shook off the rain pouring down on him. So much for hopes of taking a break.

It had started out OK. After T and Daniel had gotten over their trip, and Carter had agreed to a détente, the last evening had been exceptional. They'd docked the boat for the night about an hour out of Bullfrog and had eaten an excellent dinner on the upper deck of the houseboat with stunning starlight and moonlight that only such an isolated spot as Powell could provide as company. And the conversation had been comforting for a change. Even Carter had backed off on the mission objective, relaxing.

But last night's terrific weather was a far cry from what he was looking at now. The morning was dark grey; rain already streaking the lake, with promises of a torrential storm on the horizon, given the black thunderheads headed their way. He could barely see Navajo Mountain although its shadow lay across the water, a black impenetrable wave. He glared at the cliffs on either side of the boat. It felt like the canyon walls were closing in on them, unassailable and immovable.

And he was getting way too grim, even for him, which was saying a lot; even though it was just in his head and he hadn't said anything to anybody.

Ah jeez. He still needed to deal with Carter.

The whole situation with Carter was unnerving him. He was so out of his element. He had no business suggesting anything related to a break. He wouldn't have dreamed of even suggesting it if Kawalsky had been his second. And he certainly wouldn't have cared if Kawalsky decided to work during downtime, unless it was going to cause undue stress for the team later. And in this case, it wouldn't have. Carter loved working in her lab. No, if it had been Kawalsky, what he would have done, and what he should have done with Carter once they'd been assigned the mission, was complain about his leave being cancelled, had them take emergency transport to the site, and left the rest of it alone.

He still would have made sure that they took the houseboat and provisions whether his second was Carter or Kawalsky.

He knew this country. It was wild, desolate and dangerous. He'd done a lot of survival training in southwest canyon country before heading to the Middle East. The houseboat and the choice he'd made about which site to visit first had been calculated and planned. It was safe transport in desolate country.

He hadn't been blowing off the mission, which Carter, Daniel and even Teal'c seemed to think he had.

Sure, he'd hoped to add something on to that with her, but he hadn't explained his reasoning for why the houseboat was actually necessary. And he hadn't explained why they needed to do something while they waited for Daniel and Teal'c.

Missions on Earth were a pain. The whole situation wouldn't even have come up if they were scheduled offworld. Normally, she headed back to her lab, and he would have ...done stuff, waiting, until Daniel and Teal'c gated back and then they'd all gate out again.

But this was a mission on Earth. They had to travel to get to the location, and he'd just thought of the most amusing way they could do that while they were waiting. He'd wanted to spend some time relaxing with her along while they waited.

No wonder she had been pissed at him; he was totally out of line. And that was another thing. He was the CO. It didn't matter if he was out of line or not, he shouldn't really care if he had a pissed off subordinate… for example, if Kawalsky had been pissed at him, he would have told him to shut up and put him on report, or threatened to, anyway. Kalwalksy would have understood.

But Carter… Carter had been literally on the verge, if not over the edge, of insubordination. As her CO, he should have noted that she was developing independence and then shut her down immediately when she went over the line.

He hadn't.

All he'd seemed to care about last night was that he upset her. A part of him even kind of liked that she felt comfortable enough around him to disagree or get irritated at some of his starts. As a man - ah jeez.

Whatever it was, it couldn't be … that.

He was completely out of his mind. It really couldn't be… that. He shook his head and rubbed the rain out of his hair, trying to clear his mind. The problem was that this was not a normal team. He had Daniel on it, for crying out loud, and Daniel nearly always ignored him, but the man was brilliant and came through when it mattered. Teal'c understood military structure, but he wasn't from Earth; things didn't always translate and he had intel that they desperately needed to make decisions. And Carter was a scientist; sure, Air Force, but a brilliant scientist and turning into a great second. He trusted her implicitly to give him the data he needed to make the right decision.

He trusted them all to provide the intel for him to make decisions. But, in order for them to do that, he had to listen, had to give ground, a lot. He'd done it in the past with other teams some, sure. But this was on the edge. And that wasn't normal AF MO. So, he was possibly, probably giving ground more than he usually would.

And he really couldn't treat Carter any differently than Daniel or Teal'c just because she was AF. It would cause undue stress in an already unusual situation. So, he was giving ground where he never would have before.

That's all it was. He'd pulled this team together, agreed to the structure, and now was just adjusting. He was treating Carter like another member of this… very… weird…team. Or was trying to. That's all that was going on.

Yeah, right. He was going to have to do better. Carter was military; she'd understand if he treated her differently than Daniel or Teal'c. For that matter, he should be treating her differently. He was her CO and he'd let things slide, using the team make-up as an excuse to explore a more relaxed relationship. It had to stop.

As the wind picked up, he zipped up his windbreaker with some force. "It's desert, for crying out loud. There should be blue skies and lots of sun."

"That's not strictly true, sir. It's high desert here. It's been documented to reach 30 below in the winter and 110 above in the summer; very rugged country."

He turned around, surprised. He hadn't known she was there or that anyone could have heard him. He hadn't been paying attention and the wind was enough to mask any noises on the deck announcing her arrival. He shook his head; he needed to pay more attention. Even on what was clear was … or wasn't… a break.

Carter gently pulled him back from the portion of the top deck of the boat that was uncovered and into the shelter of the awning.

"The weather variation is why your friend Tom wants to dry dock the boat next week."

Jack cocked his head. "Listening even then, were you."

She shrugged.

He grimaced, not really amused. "I'm aware of the weather variation out here, Carter. I was stationed at White Sands for a year." He knew she'd understand the implications; that White Sands was a highly classified missile base in the southwest.

She looked surprised. "Really? It's not in your…" She stopped suddenly.

He stared at her ironically." -classified file?"

"Uhh…"

"Don't bother, Carter."

She looked out at the canyon walls, away from him.

Ah, man. He really was an ass. She'd done exactly what he would have done to check out a new command – and he was calling her on it, three years after the fact, just because he was out of … whatever.

He needed to fix it. "If you hadn't checked I would never have kept you on the team."

She stared at him, shocked. "I – what?"

"New command. End of world type stuff. An unknown CO. You have unsurpassed computer skills and you're a brilliant scientist. Doesn't take a rocket scientist, even though you are one, to scope out the situation. Of course you checked, although no one else has ever found any hacking into my files. The rest of the AF isn't as good as you are."

She stared at him, saying nothing.

He gave her a bone. "It's what I would have done in your position. Not the same way, of course. I would have made some phone calls. But if you hadn't -"

"I really wouldn't have been on the team?"

"That about sums it up."

She shook her head, trying to clear it. "I should have known that -"

"Yes, you should have." He changed the subject. It was ancient history anyway. "Why are you out here, Carter?" He waited, wondering what it was that had brought her out into the cold of the morning. She probably just wanted to get moving to Davis Gulch.

Instead, she surprised him. She swallowed. "I wanted to apologize."

He was honestly confused. "For what?"

"I – uhh… well, yesterday, I might have been a bit -" she paused looking for a word.

"—snippy?"

She grimaced. "I wouldn't call it that exactly."

He looked away, wanting to avoid the conversation. She had a point. He'd been … difficult as well. Out of line. She'd already turned him down once concerning fishing. He should never have brought it up again.

"Let's just forget it, Carter. It's not the first time I've had a second get … snippy… on me. Kawalsky used to do it all the time."

And that was true, once he thought about it. Kalwaksy had been snippy with great regularity. He just hadn't cared, as the man had always followed through, regardless. Just like Carter. Only with her, he had cared. He stopped that thought in its tracks.

He tried joking. "Just don't make a habit of it. Your next CO might not be so tolerant."

"My next CO?"

Something in her tone made him look up, concerned.

"I know we're scheduled for review, but I thought…." She stopped, thinking. "Am I being reassigned?"

Ah jeez. It was happening again, this sudden and crazed need for him to explain.

"I – no, no you're not, at least not that I know. That's not what I meant. I just – look, Carter, it's just that this … isn't a normal team." He grimaced. "Not that any team with Daniel on it would stand half a chance of being normal." He stopped, thinking. He needed to apologize as well. "I just... well, I haven't exactly been running things by the book. This trip, for example -"

"—is great. I wanted to thank you for that, for all of this." She gestured back towards the inside of the boat with Teal'c and Daniel inside and then out towards the lake.

She must have seen his surprise in his expression because she clarified. "I'm still not sure how seriously you're viewing this mission, but I do understand your reasons for thinking there's a minimal threat assessment. A day's delay didn't matter."

She looked away, at the cliffs around them. "Anyway, I thought about what you said last night to Daniel and Teal'c. I misunderstood until then. And I can be -"

"- obsessive?"

She cocked her head at him. "I was going to say professionally focused."

"Ah."

She seemed determined to finish. "Anyway, I didn't realize… I mean, well, no one's ever… well, it was a really thoughtful gesture, to plan a break for me. Thank you."

He ran his hand through his hair, looking out at the high winds forming waves nearly two feet off the lake and the wild sky ahead of them. "Well, sure, this is terrific; black clouds, rain, no cover and hundreds of miles of isolation. For what it's worth, you're welcome."

She stared him down, her eyes serious. "It's worth it."

He didn't know what to make of it. In fact, he couldn't seem to look away, staring into her expression. He couldn't remember the last time anyone had thanked him for anything. He certainly didn't deserve any thanks after the way he'd lived. Even Daniel just generally grumped at him. And he certainly didn't serve a 'thanks' from Carter. What had he done except set up what he had hoped would be a break for her and a fishing trip? Certainly nothing to merit her regard.

Somehow, the only thing he could register is that she had left off the "sirs" during the entire conversation and that for him that was the best of the conversation. And then he noticed she was standing in the freezing cold without a windbreaker, waiting for him to respond.

Just waiting.

He couldn't think of a thing to say. Or, truth was, he could think of too damned many that he couldn't say. And that was a problem he was just not going to let be a problem. He couldn't.

But he could give her a better explanation of his reasoning, CO and regs be damned. Justifying his decisions may not be by the book, but it wasn't exactly out of bounds, either. "I wasn't blowing off the mission, Sam, although I had hoped to take a break. The houseboat is the safest transport to the site. I know this country and storms like this," he gestured around him, "can come out of nowhere. Bivouacking would be my last choice, not my first for safety. And given that there was no immediate threat, but a possible threat, it was better to wait for Daniel and Teal'c. A four person team is safer than two."

She swallowed. "Thank you for explaining."

And there it was once again, that Carter look that was mesmerizing, that he never understood.

She finally broke the glance. He watched as she looked away out at the Lake and gestured toward the oncoming storm.

"We should get back in, sir."

He sighed. Yeah, the "sirs" were back. He knew it was for the best. He needed, they both needed to get things back on track.

"Yeah. Daniel is probably outlining navigation routes by now. And that's clearly a recipe for disaster considering there are ruins around here."

He gestured her back into the cabin as they both came in from the cold, and, trying to lighten the conversation commented, "I know it's October, but it's also Indian summer. This weather sucks."

She grinned, following his lead. "Yep, I think that is the technical term, sir."

Teal'c looked up from the control panel of the boat. "What is an Indian summer, O'Neill?"

Jack answered automatically. He was getting used to translating for Teal'c, even though that strictly should be Daniel's job. For some reason it had turned into his. "It's a short time when the weather's good after the first frost and before winter sets in. I - never mind. It doesn't matter." He sighed. "Fishing's out with what looks like hell headed toward us, so we might as well get to Carter's site in Demon Gulch and get on with it."

"Davis Gulch, sir."

Jack stared at her ironically. "Yeah, that. Let's head out." He started to head to the houseboat controls but Teal'c stopped him with the raise of an eyebrow, refusing to move from the seat.

"I will operate this vessel, O'Neill. You will raise anchor and then navigate upon your return."

"It's piloting; you're piloting the boat."

"As you wish. However, the anchors that secure us to land need removal prior to our departure. "

"Yeah, I thought we could all-"

Teal'c simply raised an eyebrow. Daniel and Carter looked suspiciously clueless. He sighed. It was pouring buckets by now. He was going to be seriously soaked by the time he got back.

He glared at Teal'c, who was paying no attention to him anyway. "Yeah, okay, fine." Jack headed out into the weather to detach the anchors they'd left in the beach as further support and then raise boat's main anchor.

He was soaked by the time he returned. He stared at the scene in front of him. Teal'c was at the boat's indoor lower control station examining the displays and Carter and Daniel were sitting at a table across from Teal'c, pouring over some kind of map, drinking coffee and eating donuts, for gods sakes. Had he really bought donuts? He thought back. Yeah, he had.

They all looked at him, startled, when he reappeared. Carter broke the silence. "Sir, you're dripping all over the -."

Jack shook his head, spewing water droplets all over the room. He stared at Teal'c ironically. "Nice payback, T."

The Jaffa almost grinned. "Indeed."

Jack groaned and gave it up. "Anchors are up. I'm going to take a nice **hot** shower. For a long time. Long time. Don't expect hot water for hours." He pointed to Carter. "And navigation's on you until I return, Major. Daniel will just find some ruins."

"Hey…not fair. You said I could look at ruins."

Jack ignored him.

Sam grinned. "Of course, sir."

Yeah, this day was just not getting any better. Still, he grinned as he hit the shower. They may not be normal, but damn it, it was his team and he'd defy anyone to tell him to act differently. Whatever it was, they were, was working, at least for now.


	7. Chapter 7

7.

A/N. Apologies for this chapter taking so long, but it was really tough to write, and not the plot line. That's been done for a while. Sam was giving me lots of trouble. The rest of the tale, that is written, will come much faster now that Sam's a bit more.. well, see what you think.

For this chapter, I want to make sure that Nicimac is not only credited as a beta but as second author. I would never have finished it without her beta-ing. Thanks, Nici!

And to readers, thanks for waiting, and for reading!

FYI.. yes, all the research has been done. Cave 7 is real, the Anasazi stuff is as accurate as I know it. There is some license I've taken in locations.

Sam938

sjsjsjsj

Sam stared thoughtfully out the window of the houseboat, ignoring the rain pouring down around them. She glanced at Teal'c, assured by his sure and steady focus on navigating Powell from the lower command center, took a sip of coffee, and finally looked at Daniel, sitting next to her at the boat's kitchen table across from Teal'c, while he poured through print topos and the data from his laptop, comparing notes.

"When we head back up north, there's a tributary just past Bullfrog called Forgotton Canyon that houses one of the more well-known Anasazi ruins, Defiance House. According to the topo, it's not far in, so it's just a small detour…"

She tuned out what Daniel was saying.

The Colonel had been in the shower for quite a while. He must have been freezing when he got back. At first, she had been amused by Teal'c's payback. But really, the fact was that she'd gone along with the joke because the conversation they'd had on the deck had been ... unusual.

The man was completely confusing; one minute he was irritating, annoying, gruff, irreverent and sarcastic; then could turn on a dime and the next be thoughtful, insightful, amusing, charming, funny, and really good looking… whoah.

Where had that come from? She shut that thought down immediately.

Her was her CO. She had to get a grip. She smiled, even though it was only in her mind.

OK, enough of that. Back to the list. Irritating, had she mentioned that? Yeah, she had. But confusing had to top it.

Just when she thought she was starting to read him correctly, he threw her a curve ball.

She'd completely misunderstood him yesterday. She'd thought he'd been annoyed and was taking it out on her; that he had no plan and was blowing off the mission -the typical irritating, annoying, gruff, irreverent and sarcastic part of the man. Instead, he had had a plan - and part of that had been the thoughtful, insightful piece.

He just hadn't explained what it was.

Had she mentioned exasperating? No. That one was new; she needed to add to the list, although, to be fair, he didn't **have** to explain anything. He was her CO after all.

But it wasn't like him, CO or otherwise. He usually explained his reasoning when asked, and she had asked. This tine he'd just ignored her, and therein lay the problem. She'd gotten used to his mostly easy-going leadership style when they weren't in threat of imminent death.

Why hadn't he said something earlier?

If he'd explained, she would have understood his reasoning and they could have waited at the SGC for Teal'c and Daniel and then taken the houseboat.

Instead, he'd set it up for them to take a short break together.

Huh. Without Daniel and Teal'c.

OK, that was interesting. Really interesting. She swallowed, a warm glow settling in.

When she considered it, if it had been anyone except her CO, it would be like he wanted to get to know her better, really better. But the Colonel **was** her CO and she knew him well enough by now to know that he was not one of the machismo jerks that littered the AF.

He was better than that.

And yet, this was the second time he'd done something unusual, unexpected, outside of their regular roles and responsibilities. The first was when he'd asked her to go fishing, just last month before the Replicator messes. Had it only been a month? Yeah. She'd turned him down then, but regretted it now. He'd asked out of the blue and her reaction had been fast, worried about appearances.

She grimaced to herself. She still was worried about appearances. She'd probably do the same thing again. It was unfair, but the way the world, and specifically, the AF worked. If she'd gone, the gossip would have been off the charts. Not fair, because he spent a lot of time with Daniel and Teal'c and no one questioned that.

He never spent time with her outside of work or without the team.

Maybe this was his way of trying, quietly. Nothing more, probably.

She grimaced and turned the thought aside, not quite sure how she felt about it.

Anyway, she'd turned him down on the fishing so it didn't matter.

But…. she'd wanted to go. She almost had. And thinking back on the moment before he was beamed up by Thor, she thought he knew it too.

So. Maybe he'd tried again? In a less obvious way?

Ah, jeez. If that was true, and she'd just relaxed yesterday, it could have been a fun break and a chance to get to know him personally without repercussions and without jeopardizing the mission.

She hadn't because he hadn't explained his plan and she had thought hers had been better. And she still did, but that was gut, not logic. Her plan had them there immediately. His promised safety and security while they got there. There was no immediate threat. Logic dictated the Colonel's approach, careful and steady. She couldn't argue with that, although something was wrong. She just knew it.

She thought back to her conversation with the Colonel. The rest was unclear as well, or maybe not. If she was right that he'd set up the situation to spend some time with her, then the rest became was clear. She'd basically turned him down again, and in the process managed to question his leadership style.

So, he'd reverted back to the Colonel. Thinking about it, she would have done the same if she'd been in his position. What she wasn't sure about was whether he really understood hers. Or she did.

Or she really understood his.

Ah, man. What a mess. But it was a really fine line they were walking. And nothing could be said out loud. It was all interpretation, on both of their parts, except for the CO /subordinate part. There they were on solid ground.

Or maybe not.

She had questioned his leadership. There was no way to get around that. But that had been because she'd gotten used to his easy-going style. She thought he expected it. Apparently, she was wrong.

Her new CO "not being so tolerant?" What had he meant by that? Was it a joke? It must have been, at least in part. But the comment did have some teeth to it.

Thank heavens he'd explained some of it. For a moment, she'd thought that she was going to be reassigned. It was always a possibility. In fact, she was overdue. The whole team was. Tours of duty rotated regularly, especially front lines, not that deep space radar telemetry could be called that officially.

But, she'd thought this assignment was safe, different; unique. But what if it wasn't in the eyes of the AF? General Hammond and the Joint Chiefs knew the score, knew that they were dealing with tough front line duty. What if Kinsey and his crowd had come out of the woodwork and convinced them to follow procedure and make some changes to front line teams? Kinsey would give his left arm to get rid of the Colonel.

She swallowed. And then there was the Colonel. What was that comment about anyway? Her next CO…She didn't want another CO. And sure, maybe some days, to be honest, she wanted to lead. But for now she at least expected her opinion to be listened to, which he normally did. But she did not want another CO. Unless… maybe there was something there? Something that was-

She ran her hand over her face, deciding that the whole mess was best left alone.

Bottom line, whatever else, the Colonel was an admirable man and a great leader, in her opinion. She doubted anyone else could have pulled together a team like theirs, and kept them all alive. But he didn't seem to think so. Why was that? He'd made some comments about not running the team by the regs, and when she considered it, that was true. But, the regs wouldn't work all the time, not in their situation. Jeez, as SG1, they were **writing** the regs and procedure for off-world teams.

In her opinion, he balanced it all with style.

Except when he turned "Colonel" on her out of the blue, and then did a 180 and relaxed.

She wasn't any better. She had been a hard ass Major for all of this trip, although out of line, really. All and all, he'd been pretty tolerant, given their ranks and her attitude.

And then she'd let him freeze alone, pulling up the anchors. He'd been in the shower for what seemed like forever. He must be really -

"Oh for gods sakes." Daniel interrupted her thoughts, staring at her, clearly exasperated.

"He's perfectly fine, Sam. A little rain isn't going to affect his thick hide. He's probably just using up all the hot water as a payback to Teal'c's payback. In fact, he even said so."

She started, pulled out of her thoughts. "I know that, Daniel. That's not what…"

"Then what?" Daniel shook his head, clearing it. "Never mind." He sighed, mumbling to himself. "If this is going to go on all week, I'm turning in my union card."

"Daniel Jackson, you will cease."

Daniel looked over at Teal'c, startled. "What?" He caught Teal'c's eye. " Oh. Did I say that aloud? Uh… OK. Sure. Ceased here. Totally ceased."

"That is acceptable."

Sam admitted to herself that she was relieved at Teal'c's intervention. Daniel's accusation had been completely unfair. Just because she was concerned about the Colonel, didn't mean she was **concerned**. Daniel had it all wrong.

Yeah, sure he did.

She was relieved when Teal'c turned the subject, glad to get away from her personal thoughts.

"Major Carter, what is this place? The landscape is unique. I have seen nothing equivalent. While I have been on many desert worlds that have cliffs similar to these, they were not this immense."

She looked up from the topo that Daniel was scribbling on, locating ruins he'd identified from the laptop. "It's called the Colorado Plateau, Teal'c. Or Red Rock country."

"That is understandable given the colors of the bare cliffs around us."

Daniel looked up. "Actually, more orange than red here, really."

She continued, ignoring the interruptions. "The cliffs are sandstone, Daniel. This area was once all ocean bed. The plateau uplifted about 65 million years ago. Then, as the Rocky Mountains to the east rose as well, the Colorado, Escalante and San Juan Rivers and others drilled downthrough the sandstone creating the deep canyons we can see here as they washed away the surface layers."

She paused, trying to summarize why the area was so important, beyond its beauty. "It's one of the major geological formations on Earth, because you can actually see layers of time."

She shrugged, thinking. "This isn't the steepest area, seeing as the cliffs here are only two hundred feet above us and the bottom of Glen Canyon is probably about 500 feet below the Lake's surface. Down river in what we call the Grand Canyon, the bottom is nearly 6000 feet, over a mile, below the Plateau."

Teal'c broke in. "If rivers formed these canyons, I do not understand why there is a still body of water, a lake, of such magnitude. It is desert. There are no trees, of which O'Neill speaks often as being an irritant and yet essential to your world, and little vegetation."

She looked up at that. "Ah. Well, the water's here because the Colorado River and everything flowing into it was dammed about 30 years ago to supply cities further west; it's a … humongous reservoir, as the Colonel would say." She calculated quickly. "Probably about…four trillion gallons. And even though it's not really a lake, it is called Lake Powell, after John Wesley Powell, who was the first Anglo-American to navigate the Colorado River and explore this area successfully."

"I have read the narrative of the expeditions of Major John Wesley Powell."

Daniel looked up, surprised. "You have? I mean you did?"

"Indeed. I have researched many of your explorers. There are many great warriors who have explored this world; but those of most interest have led expeditions such as O'Neill leads now; those who would not leave a man behind. It is different from the Jaffa tradition; one that we need to understand if we are to move forward. "

Daniel interrupted. "Who have you researched?"

"Edmond Mallory is most well-known for climbing the tallest of your mountains and dying there in the attempt. It was impossible odds, yet he still tried. This is admirable from a Jaffa perspective, but he was not truly part of a team, although he had comrades. Sir Ernest Shackleton and Major John Wesley Powell are those who reflect earlier successes of what O'Neill attempts to accomplish. They both fought, against impossible odds, to save their colleagues and yet to accomplish their missions."

Teal'c continued. "It is ironic. Major Powell completed his mission but only after three of his subordinates broke rank and then died in their own attempt to find a way back to their homes. They did not trust him and so they failed. Sir Earnest Shackleton did not complete his mission, but the men that followed him believed in him, and so they all lived. In the end, his mission was also accomplished, although by others."

Daniel shook his head, confused, but clearly intrigued. " Why are you so interested in their stories? They were just men, leaders of expeditions."

"Indeed. That is the point. They did not pretend to be gods. They were men, leaders who chose different paths for themselves and their men. Perhaps the different outcomes due to their situations were merely circumstance, but I do not believe so. I have yet to reconcile the stories.

"Major Powell was a one armed man who led an expedition into the unknown with nine other men in four wooden boats for 10 months as he navigated one of your great rivers for the first time. He succeeded; yet three men left the expedition, which he allowed. As a leader, he let others choose their own path when they chose not to follow, even if it led to their deaths.

"Sir Earnest Shackleton's tale is another; he failed in his goal but all twenty four of his men survived what should have been impossible because of his steadfast determination to leave no man behind.

"Which is better? To succeed and allow others to leave or to fail and keep all safe?"

Daniel stared at the Jaffa. "I don't know. But I do know that if I was one of the participants, I'd like to live."

Teal'c nodded. "So would we all, but to live free means there is a choice. Major Powell may not have had the loyalty of his group, but he did let them choose."

Teal'c looked out at the lake, making a slight adjustment to their course. "The Jaffa have learned to lead by force through power given them by the Goa'uld. If we are to be free, we must learn to lead by other methods. Such as those O'Neill applies. "

Daniel looked up startled. "You're comparing Jack to Powell and Shackleton?" Daniel's tone couldn't have been more incredulous if he tried.

"There are parallels, Daniel Jackson. To lead into the unknown requires an understanding of those who must, who can, and who will not follow and how to balance these divergent concerns effectively."

Teal'c changed the subject. "I did not understand until seeing this country how difficult Major Powell's journey must have been. This landscape is extremely forbidding and desolate. I am also surprised by the isolation. Your media presents a different perspective on the populous nature of your country."

Daniel broke in, clearly relieved to change the topic. "Actually, although Powell was the first to explore this area as an Anglo- American in the 1860s, there were some earlier Anglos here - the Mormons. And there have been other cultures that survived here.

"The first documented in any detail were the Anasazi. This was the heart of their civilization - well, not exactly here, but the Colorado Plateau and the Four Corners region - for nearly 1000 years from 300 – 1300 A.D."

"Teal'c broke in. "Major Powell's writings claim that no one of significance lived in this area prior to his discovery. I have found that troubling."

Daniel shook his head. "Yeah. He was wrong about that."

Teal'c glanced at him. "You believe he was incorrect."

"Oh, he was very seriously wrong. The Anasazi were an amazing civilization. The first evidence we have of them is that they were cave dwellers – the Basketmakers. They made dense, beautifully detailed utilitarian wares – baskets - out of yucca- a plant that grows well here. That changed when they discovered clay - the Anasazi are known for incredible designs on their pottery. In fact, we trace most of their history from the pottery - orange and red, black and white – all different time periods."

Sam suddenly felt some sympathy for the Colonel's irritation when listening to Daniel. He could get quite detailed.

"Daniel?"

"Ah yeah. So, the Anasazi were originally small farmers making the most out of the land here - corn, squash, and finally domesticated turkey. And then-"

"Then what?"

Daniel looked up at her from the topo. "I don't know, Sam. No one does. But by 900, something changed. They started building cities, huge centers for the masses. Chaco Canyon is the most famous - Pueblo Bonito has five stories and 800 rooms, for example, and it's just one of many 'great houses' in that area. There are hundreds though out the Four Corners. There are 400 miles of roads to Chaco, even though the Anasazi never discovered the wheel. Chaco was abandoned for the most part in 1150 and then new sites, like Mesa Verde, huge cliff dwelling cities, were established. They literally built cities into rock. Theirs was an incredibly rich culture."

Daniel paused. " The Anasazi built cliff dwellings and ruins here as well that, if we took just a few detours, we could see."

He looked at her accusingly.

"Daniel, the Colonel wants us to keep on track to Davis Gulch."

"He also said I could look at the ruins."

"I did not." The Colonel rambled in from his shower, looking ruffled. She smiled at him.

She had a weird feeling of warmth, which she squashed immediately, when he smiled back.

"You did, Jack."

"You did indeed, O'Neill."

Sam stared at them, amused. Teal'c as a weapon for diffusing arguments between the Colonel and Daniel was amazingly effective.

The Colonel cocked his head at Teal'c and then sighed. "OK, maybe I did. But we can do that on the way back if there's nothing at Carter's site. Her work has priority."

Daniel looked thoughtfully at the Colonel. "Fair enough."

The Colonel stared at Daniel suspiciously, but refused to take the bait. He changed the subject. "What were you kids talking about anyway? Things look kind of … involved." He sat down next to Teal'c, playing with the radio transponder.

Sam explained. "Teal'c asked for a general introduction and analysis of the geology of the area, sir, which I provided. Daniel briefly explained the archaeological history. He was getting into more detail when you came in."

"Ack. OK, fine. Glad I was in the shower."

Teal'c interrupted. "We also reviewed the similarities and differences between Major Powell's expedition in this area and Sir Earnest Schakleton's experiences in the Antarctic."

The Colonel looked up at that and stared at Teal'c. "Leave no man behind."

"Indeed."

The Colonel sighed. "Never understood myself why Shackleton wanted to spend all that time in the Antarctic. It's damned cold." He glanced at her, smiling.

She cocked her head, acknowledging his point. "And yet, it has its moments, sir."

He stared at her. "Yeah, I guess it does."

She held his gaze for a moment, surprised and intrigued by his reply.

The Colonel broke eye contact as Teal'c glanced at him impatiently, well, as much as Sam thought Teal'c could glance at anyone impatiently.

"O'Neill."

"Ah, yeah. Different circumstances, Teal'c. Comparing Shackleton to Powell is like comparing apples and oranges."

"I do not understand."

Daniel interrupted, staring at the Colonel. "You've read about Shackleton and Powell?"

The Colonel stared back, annoyed. "Well, every now and then you do have to take a break from the Simpsons."

"O'Neill."

Teal'c's tone was much firmer this time.

The Colonel turned back to Teal'c. "Yeah, sorry, T. Anyway, both expeditions were civilian, so there was no official chain of command. It's true that Powell was former military, but he served during a period where desertion was fairly common. And when three men left his expedition, he could assume they might survive and so he could in good conscious let them take their chances. Shackleton's men had no choice but to follow, although they did disagree with him, often. There was no way - uhh.. - no **where** to walk out. And in the end, Shackleton used his men's expertise to bring everyone home, no matter how much they disagreed."

"This does not answer my question, O'Neill."

"Ah. And what is that?"

"What are the leadership characteristics that make men **choose** to follow, and also make men choose to leave?"

The Colonel looked flummoxed. "I think maybe I didn't spend enough time in the shower."

He glanced, slightly panicked, at Daniel, who was clearly enjoying the conversation way too much. Daniel just shrugged, grinned and refused to say anything.

The Colonel grimaced. Denied any support from Daniel, he turned to her. "Have an opinion, Major?"

"No, sir."

He stared her down. "You're lying."

She grinned. "Of course, sir."

He sighed. "Okay, we'll discuss that later."

He turned back towards Teal'c, seriously considering the man's question. "Both Powell and Shackleton believed in their expeditions, and by all accounts were calm men even in desperate circumstances. They listened to recommendations and then chose to implement them or not. Then they held firm, after making a decision, no matter differing views. Beyond that, T, I don't know. Except that, in Shackleton's case, he was willing to die in order assure others survived. Powell didn't have to face that question. He thought the men who left had a good chance of survival. And he did follow up on a later expedition to learn what happened."

"This is interesting. Thank you, O'Neill."

"Yeah. Sure."

The Colonel stared at Daniel, clearly annoyed at the man's defection in the conversation. He changed the subject. "Where was it that you said these ruins are that you want to visit after Carter's site?"

Sam watched, amused. The Colonel must be really desperate if he was willing to discuss the location of ruins. Of course, maybe he was just baiting Daniel to complain yet again about the man's choice. She sat back and waited to see the show.

Daniel looked at the Colonel suspiciously. "Just north of Bullfrog Marina. When we head back we look can at Forgotten Canyon and the Defiance House ruins. There are some great petroglyphs there of anthromorphs fighting with clubs and shields."

The Colonel started in. "If you already know what's there, why are you interested? And how do you know what's there?"

"Read up on this area last night. Rothman sent me some files. It's really not my area of expertise, although I did follow the research into the Anasazi in the late 70s when a lot of the work was being conducted, but that was further east. I know what's **here** because archaeologists documented the area before the canyon was dammed. Before they flooded the canyon, they'd identified over 2000 sites. And they never had the chance to finish."

The Colonel broke in, grumbling. "So... couldn't we look at something… if we have to…" he glanced again at Teal'c and sighed, "and we clearly have to… that's got another name besides forgotten, defiance, whatever, and doesn't have general destruction and fighting figures associated with it? We're on a mission. If we do take a break, it should be … fun. The destruction stuff is just … business as usual."

Daniel cocked his head, actually considering the Colonel's request. It had to be a first as far as ruins were concerned. Daniel was actually considering revising his plan. It was kind of amazing. She waited for the punch line.

He finally commented, mildly, "It's true that Defiance House has been well documented. And it's just a small cliff dwelling that housed maybe two, three families. I thought it was interesting only because it's a prototype for what's in the area that hasn't been discovered. So, yes, I can see your point. There's no reason to go to that particular site."

The Colonel grinned, clearly unable to believe that he'd won the point so easily. "So… we're forgetting Forgotten, right?"

Daniel looked up, pausing from this review of other sites on his laptop. "Absolutely. Moqui Canyon is probably the better choice. That's not far off. In fact, it's between Bullfrog and Davis Gulch. There're over 70 sites in the canyon, many of them from the Basketmaker period, around 500 A.D, identified but unexplored."

"Daniel."

Sam watched the show as Daniel ignored the Colonel's interruption and then said, deadpan, "There's supposed to be good fishing in Moqui Canyon. It has a lot of "– he looked down at his laptop, researching- "uhh, bass, I think. Sam, Teal'c and I could explore the ruins while you're watching … the boat."

The Colonel chirked up. "Ah, well, now that sounds like a plan. This weather can't last forever. And at least 'Moqui' sounds more friendly than 'defiance' and 'forgotten'."

Daniel smirked. "Actually, Moqui in the Hopi language means 'dead'."

"Oh, that's just peachy."

Sam wasn't sure who'd won that round, but it looked like Daniel, given the man's smirk, and the Colonel's irritation. The Colonel sat down next to Teal'c, ignoring Daniel, discussing the attributes of the boat.

Daniel finally broke the silence that settled as the rain poured down, the sky black as Teal'c carefully headed toward Davis Gulch.

"So, Sam, about **your** interest in the area. What was the time when you said these signatures you identified occurred? You never mentioned that."

"September 22 at moonrise; in fact exactly at the fall equinox."

"Really. That's interesting."

"What do you mean?"

"Well, it's probably nothing, but early societies used astronomical events as a calendar, and the fall equinox was an important date for most of them, especially the Anasazi. "

"You started to describe the Anasazi earlier, Daniel. What happened to them?"

"They disappeared."

The Colonel broke in, protesting. "Oh, c'mon Daniel."

"I'm serious, Jack. The entire population just up and walked away, leaving cliff dwellings, great houses, pottery, food stuffs intact. The Hopi, Zuni and Acoma Pueblo Peoples claim some of them as ancestors, but there were many tens of thousands of people throughout the Colorado Plateau at the height of the Anasazi civilization. Some estimates claim as high as 250,000. They all disappeared by approximately 1300. There are theories as to why - ecological degradation, warfare, drought - but none have ever been completely confirmed."

"There must be graves, bodies, something."

"Well, yes. There are burials from earlier periods in middens – their version of garbage dumps – and bodies have been found carefully preserved inside their pueblos and cliff dwellings, but nothing that would account for a population of that size. There are some theories that are now becoming more accepted, that there was cannibalization and murder towards the end of the society, and some evidence to that effect, but nothing has ever definitively explained the mass exodus of the population or where they went."

The Colonel sighed. "Terrific."

Teal'c broke in. "If the translation of Moqui is the 'dead', what is the translation of 'Anasazi'?"

"Uhh… oh boy. It means Ancients or Ancient Enemy." He hurried on quickly. "But that was a name coined by the Navajo. They refused to go into the canyons because they thought they were haunted. Still don't, till this day."

Teal'c broke in. "Navajo?"

"Another indigenous peoples here, Teal'c. They are formally documented arriving here around the 1300s."

"So, perhaps the enemy of the Anasazi."

"No. Most research says there is little to no connection. And most of Navajo agree, although not all. There are myths and legends that claim there was a connection between the Navajo and Anasazi. Some Navajo even believe that the Anasazi joined with the People after the fall of their civilization.

"Most of the People live on a huge tract of land called the Navajo Nation. Actually, it abuts this area. And as I said, their history does not recognize the Anasazi as enemies; just as … well, basically… frightening. And dead."

The Colonel stared at Daniel, his expression suddenly serious and intense. "Oh, that's just peachy. So, Carter's itchy about the possibility of alien technology on Earth in a place where potentially thousands of people disappeared without a trace nearly 800 years ago -"

"Jack, it really doesn't mean -"

"I'm not done, Daniel."

Daniel grimaced and waved his hand for the Colonel to continue.

" - a place that is now emitting weird signals and one the local population, the Navajos, think is haunted, have refused to enter for hundreds of years, and who call the last inhabitants the "Ancients". And it's all happening in an isolated, unpopulated, in fact, one of the least populated places in the country…possibly on the continent.

"That's just great."

"In Navajo, Anasazi is 'Ancient Ones or Ancestor Enemy**'**, Jack. And it doesn't necessarily mean anything anyway. The Navajo just thought the canyons were haunted. Still do. And yes, the country's wild, but that doesn't mean-"

Daniel stopped suddenly. "Wait a minute. Where did you say the other site of the emissions was, Sam?"

"Butler Wash. It's an isolated canyon in southeastern Utah about 100 miles from here. Why?"

"I knew that sounded familiar. Butler Wash was excavated as part of the Hyde Expedition led by Wetherill in 1894; it was the first major expedition into the ruins. "

The Colonel broke in. "Daniel – the point?"

"He was a cowboy turned archaeologist."

"And….so…?"

Daniel stayed silent.

The Colonel tried again. "And…. Daniel, so what? What did they find at Butler Wash?"

Daniel sat up, raising his glasses to rub his eyes. " A lot of artifacts, bodies of what had to be senior chieftains, and… "

"*What*, Daniel? Even you wouldn't get this … weirdly… inarticulate over artifacts and graves."

Daniel cocked his head, staring at the Colonel. "It was a massacre. They found lots and lots of bodies and bones." He paused. "What makes it even weirder is that no one has ever been able to relocate cave 7; the site of the massacre. It's just… disappeared."

"Oh c'mon. The Expedition must have kept records."

"The data was wrong. People have been searching for cave 7 for over 100 years."

Jack sighed. "Sweet."

He got out of his chair and rubbed his hands through his hair. "Okay, fun's over, kids. The Major, as usual, is right. We need to get to the site asap." He gestured to Teal'c. "You keep the boat on heading to Davis Gulch."

"I will, O'Neill."

"Carter, check out the gear. We need wet suits, tanks, cameras and whatever else you need. You and I will head down under. Unfortunately, the weapons we do have won't work in the water so you'll need to watch your back."

"Understood, sir."

"Daniel…"

"I'll keep researching."

"Thank you." He sighed. "At least this one's named Davis Gulch, not Death or whatever."

"Uhhh.. Jack?"

"Yeah? What?"

"There were some unusual incidents in Davis Gulch in the 1930s. Nothing important as far as I can see but—"

"Leave it, Daniel. Just….go … research everything earlier. If there is someone out there who's messed with this area, it happened along time ago. And now they might be trying again. The history of this area is what you need to focus on, not recent stuff."

"But –" Daniel stopped and sighed. "You're right, of course. Nothing we know of significant import has happened here in documented history. I'll just -" He gestured towards where Sam had set up the computers.

"Yeah. Do that."

Jack turned back to Teal'c. "T – the navigation-"

Teal'c broke in. "I am aware of the challenge. In order to arrive at Davis Gulch, one must first navigate Lake Powell for another twenty miles. We will then arrive at the mouth of the Escalante River drainage. This vessel will need to be docked there, as the canyon narrows. The maps Daniel Jackson has provided suggest that the cliff walls in the Escalante are 500 feet high, but the channel is only thirty feet across. We will not be able to navigate a vessel of this size easily in those waters.

"You and Major Carter will then take the speedboat up river twenty miles to reach Davis Gulch and then another ten within that tributary to the site of the emissions.

"Daniel Jackson and I will remain at the mouth of the river with this boat anchored on Powell and await your return."

"Uhh.. yeah. Thanks."

"You are welcome, O'Neill."


	8. Chapter 8

8 ( revised ).

A/N. I want to thank Alimoo and PatS very very much for pointing out (extremely politely!) that I know absolutely nothing about diving and didn't bother to research it (for the first version of ch.8), which in my opinion is one of the worst writer sins around. So I did… grin. Diving tables, more decompression articles than I ever want to see again. It was fun, to be honest. Here's the result. Uhh.. if I'm dead wrong, it's ok. Someone can let me know… grin. And by the way, I am now convinced that diving is crazier and far far scarier than climbing a 14er, or rappelling a canyon, which of course, are sane things to do.

I know it's possible that a some authors might not like this kind of comment, and makes reviewers kind of nervous to mention, but I'm not one of them. I love to learn new stuff and I am truly appreciative that someone would take the time to write!

So, again, I want to thank Alimoo and PatS. It also turns out that the bends made the next three chapters a WHOLE lot better than the original! Alimoo and PatS rock!

Apologies for the revision to other readers. (It is a WIP… she says, ducking.) I'm immediately posting the next two, so I hope that helps. Thanks for reading!

Sam938

Sam stared at the GPS, checking the coordinates against the landscape once again as the speedboat rushed through the Escalante towards Davis Gulch.

Spray from the boat was fogging up her goggles. She wiped her eyes and motioned to the Colonel to slow it down. She couldn't tell where they were if he kept up their current speed and they might pass the coordinates. And her goggles were drenched, for heavens sakes.

The sky was black, the rain pouring down on them, the desert around them objecting to the deluge, and yet welcoming the downfall. She understood that kind of dichotomy. It was an embarrasment of riches that could be fatal for anyone or thing that didn't recognize the danger.

She glanced up from her GPS to the sides of the canyon. The cliffs were towering ominously above them, nearly 500 feet up of sheer rock on either side. The channel was tight, much tighter than the broad open water of Powell. She looked back down at the GPS and bit down the feeling of claustrophobia. She hated enclosed space; hated it. She hated being enclosed and out of control.

She had to get a grip. She'd been in worse situations than this. And yet… she hunkered down and refused to finish the thought. She swallowed, ignoring the disquiet. She could do this. She just needed to concentrate on the task at hand, to identify the exact location of the emissions.

Yeah, she could do that.

Sure.

She tried to distract herself by concentrating on the geology of the canyon as she scoped it out via the GPS for the target area. She scanned the cliffs, recognizing the layers of sand, limestone and conglomerates from different periods. Thought it through, concentrating her mind on what she was seeing. The rocks were late Traissic and early Jurassic Periods, the Glen Canyon Group. The orange brown at the bottom was Wingate sandstone, formed by ancient sand dune deposits from about 200 million years ago. The one above it – the red orange was the Kayenta Formation. Above that, the tan lightish brown, was Navajo Sandstone, from about 180 million years ago, when the area was a large inland dune field similar to the Sahara.

It was all about time. Time ran through the rocks.

The black vertical lines that ran through the layers were called desert varnish – really, mineral deposits. The rain poured down on it all, making everything more visceral, more dangerous. She couldn't shake the feeling of danger.

She had to get back to the point of the mission. She stared back down at the GPS and away from the cliffs. As she'd told the Colonel earlier, the problem was that she would be able to identify longitude and latitude of the emissions signatures, but not depth.

It was another 500 foot down to the bottom of Davis Gulch. If nothing were visible above the water at the coordinates, they'd have to dive.

There was no question in her mind about that now, looking at the sheer unrelenting stone that surrounded them for 500 feet above and 500 below. They were going to have to dive.

It was going to be cold, and difficult. She tried to shake off the feeling of dread. Both she and the Colonel were trained divers, the Colonel with a wealth of experience, probably from his Black Ops days. Even Daniel and Teal'c were trained. No one was let off world without some experience, especially front line teams, like theirs.

It was going to be OK. They were fit and healthy, essential for deep dives. She knew the diving tables by heart, and bet the Colonel did as well. She knew the NDLs, the no decompression limits, knew maximum bend depths times, knew to add in the calculations of altitude here at nearly 4000 feet above sea level, knew she needed to account for the cold by adding 10 feet to depth when calculating all of the above to realize their safe times in diving.

Cold. Yeah, it was cold.

Even now in her wetsuit, she thought wistfully of the warmth of the houseboat. They'd left Daniel and Teal'c anchored at the mouth of the Escalante, on Powell, not wanting to risk the narrow channel. The speedboat was faster, and the coordinates were thirty miles up canyon by her reckoning.

She'd been hopeful at first that nothing would go FUBAR. The rain had eased up for a while, but that was an hour ago. There'd been a brief break while they started out, but shortly after, the clouds had reformed, and now they were in the rainstorm from hell.

In the desert.

She grimaced as the rain continued to pound down, the sky almost black.

It was **so** not the most auspicious time to be investigating anything outdoors. Yet here they were.

The Colonel had been right not to bivouac. If he'd had taken her recommendation, they'd have camped at the entrance to Davis on land, hiked in ten clicks in the pouring rain and then had another 10 of rafting before they got to the site. By starting on the lake, rather than on the land, navigation was easier and the speedboat was a safe site if anything went wrong.

She was the one who had insisted on this mission. He hadn't wanted to do it, she knew it at the time, but he had. She felt a slightly warm glow when she thought, yet again, about his comments to T and Daniel when he'd thought she hadn't heard. He'd actually done it for her. That was… pretty amazing. Yeah.

And look at what she'd gotten all of them into; rain, wilderness, and cold. The Colonel seemed to think it was his fault, but it wasn't. She was the one that had insisted. He'd just made the whole thing palatable. She thought about the last missions they'd had and suddenly froze. She'd forgotten about his experience on the sub just a month ago, where he and Teal'c had nearly died. Not forgotten, precisely, but ignored it. He must hate the idea that they had to dive now.

There was nothing she could do to fix it. And she still felt in her gut that something was out there.

She tried to concentrate but now she couldn't see a thing with **rain** now fogging her goggles.

She wiped them down again. And checked the GPS again. There. There it was. Finally, they were at the location Lee and Harris had identified.

She motioned to the Colonel to pull the boat over.

He turned down the motor and stared at her. "You have got to be kidding me."

"No, sir. I think it's here."

He looked around at the sheer cliffs around them and then back at her, wiping the rain off his face. "So… definitely diving."

"Yes, sir."

He sighed. "Figures. This just keeps getting better and better. See anywhere we can dock this puppy?"

She looked around. He had a point. There was nothing to attach the speedboat to … except….she gestured towards a hanging rock about 500 yards from the site.

"Yeah, sure."

They docked it there, if you could call it docking. No, you couldn't call it docking. He just literally tied the boat to the rock face and then shrugged. She had to agree. It was the best they could do.

She had to say something. "I'm sorry, sir."

He looked at her, startled. "For what?"

"I – well, I can understand if the last thing you'd want to do was dive after your experience with the sub and the Replicators last month. I really didn't expect this."

The Colonel stared at her, stopping his movements and finally commented, mildly, "Actually, I hadn't thought of that before now. Thanks for mentioning it."

She stared at him, not buying the comment. "Sir –"

He shook his head. "It's ok, Carter. And I appreciate the thought." He turned away, getting his tanks set up. "Let's do this."

"Yes, sir." She grabbed her tanks and equipment, strapped them on and then turned on her headlamp and jumped in. She heard the Colonel splash into the water behind her.

She acknowledged his signal to head down after he'd turned on the camera he was carrying to document the site. As they swam to the GPS coordinates, she kept her eyes glued to her equipment, looking for any indication of energy signals.

There was nothing.

The water was dark and foggy. Her headlamp shone on the canyon wall, fish surrounding her as she moved through the schools. When they reached the coordinates, she stopped, staring at the rock wall in front of her. There was nothing here, no purchase, just … nothing. It was a sheer, black wall of rock.

She started diving lower along the wall, searching. Forty feet down, now a hundred, a hundred and thirty.

The Colonel grabbed her hand, gesturing up and then down. She understood what he meant—they were way past a safety zone for diving, if they calculated cold and altitude into the mix; just at the limit if she ignored that.

He put both hands up indicating 10 - the total number of minutes they could spend at this depth for a no decompression dive, and that was even risky. At this depth, if they had to move fast to get back to the surface, they'd die if they came up too fast.

She shook her head, acknowledging the warning, but dove lower.

There.

Only another five feet down. Outside of safe diving parameters, but… something was there.

There **was** something. It looked like a cave in the side of the cliff. She swam closer.

God, what **was** that?

She looked to the Colonel as he pulled her back to his side.

Three beings stared back at them from the outside of the cave. They were as tall as she, taller, with some sort of protective covering. She couldn't see faces or hands or legs, just their forms. They were bright, nearly white, standing out in the darkness of the water.

Totally still.

It couldn't possibly be. It couldn't be. It couldn't - she shook her head, clearing it.

Of course it couldn't.

She swam closer to the images, swearing she could hear the Colonel yelling at her, even though she couldn't, and inspected the rock wall.

Her hands traced the forms carved into the cliff. Daniel would have a field day with the camera footage when they got back. The images were three anthromorphs, probably carved out of the rock a thousand years ago and then painted. The glow had been her headlamp hitting the paint.

She stopped short. That wasn't possible. The canyon had been flooded over thirty years ago. Any paint would have washed away long before.

There was something wrong here, something terribly wrong. She could feel it in her bones. She traced the last anthromorph's image. This one had a hand, carved out of the rock but not painted. It was in darkness. And it was pointed into the cave.

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Jack swore as he watched Carter head into the cave. It wasn't that he disagreed with her, but he'd rather be on first. He didn't like the situation. The weather, the water depth and now weird…stuff were enough to put him on edge. And why hadn't he made sure they had underwater communication devices? Well, that was easy. He didn't think they'd find anything. He damned himself for an idiot, because there was something here. Something dangerous. The place was just… wrong. He could feel it.

Nine minutes. They had nine more minutes and then they had to go. And even that was dangerous, past safety recs. On alert, he followed her in at the ready and scoped the area with his headlamp.

He stared at the back of the cave.

There was a perfectly preserved cliff dwelling against the wall. It was two stories high, completely intact with a T shaped door. Carter gestured and began scanning the back wall for energy signatures. She shook her head in the negative when he grabbed her arm, questioning.

He motioned toward the dwelling and then moved towards the door, Carter following, and scanned the interior with his headlight. It was completely empty. They swam back out and he started examining the structure.

Then he saw them. There were patterns on the back wall next to the structure, not white, or glowing like the beings outside of the cave's entrance. They were just carvings in the rock. He swam over to them, staring at the design.

Carter suddenly grabbed his hand, shaking her head and pointing at the equipment in her hands.

He didn't need the warning.

The wall began to vibrate as a green light, luminous, glowing, covered the cave all around them. The water swirled calmly as the back wall began to melt.

The light coalesced into a figure. It beckoned, smiling, its hand moving toward him.

He was being dragged forward. He tried to pull back, but he was caught. Something was drawing him toward the wall.

Then it saw Carter and all hell broke loose.

Huge chunks of sandstone crashed down, landing around her. The water, calm moments before, now swirled around her viciously, the current crushing her against the side of the cave. The green light focused on her, spotlighting her against the darkness.

The figure, once beckoning him, was now angry, forcing him away, shoving him out of the cave.

He had to stop it.

He had to get to her.

The water was suddenly freezing. He could feel its chill even through the wetsuit. The current threw him back to the mouth of the cave, nearly taking him out of it. He crashed against the sidewall and then slid, inching along slowly, fighting the current to get to Carter.

All he could think of was that he had to get to her. He could see that she was having trouble breathing. Her tanks were crushed, probably useless. He was afraid she'd broken ribs, or worse, when the current had smashed her against the side of the cave.

She was fighting, trying to move toward him and away from the back of the cave, but the pressure was too strong.

He made a final surge in the water, pushing through the darkness. He unhooked the harness that strapped her tanks to her back and pulled her with him toward the mouth of the cave.

They had to get out, up and out of this death trap. It was 135 feet up and she had no air. He grabbed her, holding her to him, and pushed up as hard as he could through the water. He couldn't stop to give her air yet. He had to get them away from the cave or they'd both die.

He stared at his equipment, stopping 70 feet above the cave, and gave her his respirator. They had to stop now or die of the bends. He stared down through the water below at the cave's entrance, still lit by an eerie green glow.

Nothing was following.

He swore. He should have checked earlier if they were being followed. He'd pushed the ascent, ascending 65 feet in a minute. For safety, it should have been two.

He watched as she breathed in air and checked the time again, trying to focus on anything else except holding his breath while she breathed in necessary oxygen. They'd been at the maximum bend depth in the cave for eight minutes, just inside the window of ten. So, okay, that was good.

But… god, they'd broken nearly all the recs for safety; diving too low given the altitude and cold, staying too long, ascending too fast on only one set of tanks. She'd had no air for minutes while they got out. And then there was the attack. Violent movement was the kiss of death at 135 feet under water.

Carter seemed to know what he was thinking. He could see it in her eyes, the apology and the worry. He shook his head, but she put her hand on his mouth and handed him the respirator.

He grimaced. It made sense. He needed to take them up as she had been compromised, and for that he needed air regularly. They each had to hold their breath for moments and then breathe in what air there was in his tanks independently to stay alive. And move slowly up to surface, or die from the bends.

They shared the respirator.

After what seemed like a lifetime, but was only two minutes, they ascended another ten feet to the next required stationary stop.

Jack counted down the rest, remembering his diving training instinctively from two decades before. Ten more feet up, another minute of rest, then another ten, and another minute. And on, exchanging the respirator as often as possible. At twenty feet, he held them still for two minutes and at fifteen for four.

It would have to do. Ascending quickly from deep diving was damned dangerous, but he could feel hypothermia setting in. They'd never make it to the speedboat if they didn't move. And this was… freezing cold.

They made the surface. The sky was black, the rain pouring down on them.

She came up spluttering. He put his mouthpiece back in hers, watching as she took great gulps of air as he held them steady in the water.

"Oh my god…What *was* that?"

"Don't. Not now. Breathe."

He'd calculated it on the way up. She'd been without air for two minutes before they got out of the cave. And they'd had to share air his oxygen. He knew that her chances of avoiding decompression sickness were higher if she continued to remain on their final decompression gas, the gas in his tanks.

He didn't give a damn about his own danger. This was Carter. She was too important.

She nodded, gulping air. It was possibly the best thing he'd ever seen.

"It's alright. We made it out." His arms held her tightly, one rubbing against her back, helping her breathe. "We need to get back to the boat. Can you move?"

She shook her head, nodding, and took another breath.

He stared at her and then up at the sky. The rain was still pouring buckets, the winds picking up again. "Okay, we take it slow, and we do this together."

She didn't say anything, just held onto him, which worried him more than anything else she could have said or done. Carter not arguing was frightening. They slowly made their way back to the speedboat. He hauled them both up, detached the ropes and gunned it, stopping only to remove his gear, so Carter could continue to use the decompression gas. She was lying on the bottom of the boat, freezing. He needed to get them both back to warmth as fast as possible.


	9. Chapter 9

9.

Daniel and Teal'c were waiting at the back of the houseboat. Jack threw the ropes to Teal'c who began securing the speedboat, and then helped Carter up off the floor, removing his tanks from her back.

"Daniel, get her in and in the shower. Stat. Hypothermia, possible bends. Watch the ribs, she may have broken something."

"Got it." Daniel grabbed Sam's arms carefully and helped her up the ladder, aboard, and into the houseboat.

Teal'c pulled him up the ladder, grabbing his arms. "What has transpired, O'Neill?"

He headed into the living room of the boat, throwing his equipment down. He fell to the floor, braced his arms on his knees, and breathed heavily. Teal'c handed him a glass of water, which he drank quickly. He knew it was likely he was dehydrated from the dive.

He grimaced as Teal'c handed him another glass. "Damned if I know, Teal'c. But it tried to crush her. We barely got out alive."

"Should we remove from this location?"

"Ah… no. No, I think we're ok here. It left us alone after we got out of the cave."

Daniel came back into the room, a concerned expression in his eyes. "What cave?"

Jack ignored the question. "Is Carter alright?" He should get up off the floor and check himself, but he couldn't seem to move.

"I think so. She's showering. She says no signs of the bends and she doesn't think anything's broken. Just bruised."

"Yeah, she'd say that." Jack started to get off the floor, but nearly fell. Teal'c grabbed him and set him down on the sofa.

Daniel stared at him and repeated himself. "She's **showering**, Jack. You don't look so great yourself. What happened?"

The adrenaline suddenly gone, Jack realized he had some pretty bad bruises of his own. "Get me some clothes, Daniel. I need to take this crap off."

Daniel returned shortly with a towel, jeans and a sweatshirt. Jack stripped and stood up, drying his hair. "Thanks."

"What happened?"

"Later. I need to check on Carter. That thing nearly killed her."

"Jack, what thing?" Jack ignored Daniel, heading to the middle of the boat to the shower. He knocked on the door. The water was off, so she must be warmed up at least.

"Carter? You alright?"

"I – yeah, I'm …ah..." She started coughing.

"Open the door." He checked. It was unlocked. " Carter, I'm coming in." He really didn't care if she was buck-naked; he'd be better able to tell about broken bones and bruising that way and check for external signs of the bends.

She was leaning up against the sink, coughing, a towel around her body. Jack scanned the skin he could see. She was badly bruised but there was no rash, one of the first symptoms of decompression sickness. She stumbled, bracing her hands as she coughed, and he moved in, supporting her gently, her back to his chest.

He looked back at them both in the mirror in front of them, tilting his head. Her face was bruised, already puffy. "That's going to be quite the shiner."

She grimaced. "One of the shards caught me in the face. The goggles took the brunt of it." She paused. "I **hate** those stupid AF goggles, but I think they saved my eyes."

"Nice to know that AF requisition has some uses, not just porking up the latest bill in the House."

"I got off lucky. That thing was trying to …"

She couldn't quite finish the sentence, so he finished it for her. "—kill you, I know."

"It didn't want to kill you."

"I know, Carter. We'll figure it out, but right now you need to rest, and I need to make sure we don't have to evac you out of here. The bends…"

"I know. But I don't think I have any of the symptoms. The only joint pain is my left ankle, and it hit the wall. No headache, tingling, numbness, nausea…"

"Can you move? You need to rest." Activity aggravated the bends.

"Yeah." But she started coughing again. He supported her weight while she coughed, holding onto the sink. It wasn't a good sign. Dry cough was one of the symptoms.

She seemed to know what he was thinking. "It's not -I got water in my lungs, that's all. It's still irritating the lining." When she finally subsided, he put his arm under hers, helping her move to her bedroom. She stumbled again, coughing.

"Oh, to hell with this."

Only Daniel and Teal'c were around. He picked her up. She looked ready to kill him, which suddenly made him feel a whole hell of a lot better.

He deposited her somewhat gingerly and quickly on her bed.

"Thank you." Her tone was dry as dust.

He grimaced. "Okay, I know you think I'm overreacting, Carter, but that thing was out after you. And we came up fast." He hurried on. "As for this, its just business as usual when one of us is compromised. I'd do the same for Daniel or Teal'c." He paused, and tried joking. "Well, maybe not T. I don't think I could lift him."

She grimaced, coughing. "I know." She coughed again and continued, determinedly. "Teal'c would have murdered you the minute you walked in without permission when he was wearing a towel."

He grinned. She really was feeling better. "For your information, Teal'c never wears a towel."

"Ah." She started coughing again, and then smiled. "Too much information."

"Yeah, that's what I thought."

"So, just to be clear. Do you?"

"Do I what?"

"Wear a towel?"

She stared at him, clearly appalled. "I can't believe I just said that."

He couldn't either. He tried another joke. "Well, delirium is one of the first signs of the bends."

She rolled her eyes. "Ah, jeez…it's not the-". She started coughing again.

"Answer's 'no'."

She looked shocked that he'd actually replied.

He grinned. "Too much information?"

"Not this time."

He didn't know what to say to that. He left it alone to think about later.

OK, maybe that slight…weirdness had worked for a while to divert her, but he still needed to know how badly she was injured. He was her CO after all.

Yeah, right.

He sat down on the bed next to her. "You'll let me know if there are any signs?"

She stared back, serious. "I will. But we came up although we came up fast, it was still according to decompression rules. There's only a 2.8 possibility in 10,000 dives. I think I'm OK on that count." She stared at him, considering. "What about you?"

"Nothing."

She stayed silent.

He needed more answers. "OK, assuming no bends, are you sure no broken bones? I know you'd feel most of them, but if you've broken a rib, it could have punctured your lung and the pain isn't the same." He knew. He'd done it himself.

"No, that's not it. I'm sure. I just got water in my lungs and when I took a hit on the wall, messed up the ankle. That's it, except for the bruises." She shifted on the bed, trying to find a comfortable position.

"Will you let me check the ribs at least?" He was not going to let something stupid like modesty or bravado get in the way checking her injuries. And he knew that Carter knew better than that as well. Or at least he thought she did.

When she didn't say anything, he jumped into the silence. "Look, I can understand if you'd rather it wasn't me. But we need to know. Daniel or Teal'c can check if that's better."

"No."

"What?" He wasn't sure what she was disagreeing with.

" It's not better. I'd rather you checked, sir."

"Okay." He helped her sit up, then found a sweatshirt and helped her on with it. She shifted on the bed and raised it up to check her ribs. He couldn't feel anything broken, although he wouldn't be able to tell if she had a fracture. Only time would determine that, that or an MRI. He really should insist that they evac her to Page.

"I'm not going to Page. I'm all right, sir. Just sore." Yes, he knew she could read minds, but it didn't really matter. As her CO, it was his responsibility to make sure she was safe.

She broke into his thoughts. "I need to be here. I need to help with the analysis of what happened. Lee and Harris aren't that familiar with alien energy technology and that's what it had to be."

"Carter, you need to get checked out."

"If it's not any better tomorrow you can call for a copter and I'll get checked out at Page."

"No copter. No flying for 24 hours. You know the rules."

"OK, then by speedboat. But I've been worse. We all have. Just because it's Earth, doesn't mean we don't need to see the mission through."

He grimaced. She had a point. It was a mission and they had been in worse situations off world and saw them through. Just because they were on Earth shouldn't change that, although his instincts were screaming out at him to make absolutely sure she was ok and the hell with the rest. Damn. The real problem was he wasn't sure which instincts were foremost - CO or something else.

She noted his silence and said determinedly, "I'm not going. I need to be here."

He sighed. "OK, we'll give it until tomorrow. I'll get you some liquid. No drugs until we're sure about decompression."

He got her some water, and then waited until she'd settled down. He finally stood up to leave.

"Thank you."

He stared at her. Her eyes were already closed, resting. "No problem, Carter."

Except it was. It was a very big problem. He turned away and closed the door, quietly, determined to keep his head in the sand for as long as possible. They were in the desert, after all. Even if they had both nearly drowned today.

He headed to Carter's situation room and contacted Hammond. It was best that the man knew the situation at Powell and what had happened. And some conversations with their allies, Thor in particular, were in order. If it wasn't the Asgard, he hoped the little guy might have some idea of what they were up against. An hour later, he shut down, knowing Hammond would take care of his end at the SGC.


	10. Chapter 10

10.

Jack finally headed into the living room where Daniel and Teal'c were ensconced at the kitchen table staring at a laptop.

"Look, I know you want to know what happened, but…"

Daniel looked up. "Actually, we don't, Jack, or rather, we already know. You left the camera running through all of it." He paused. "It's really …nasty… footage. And I understand now why you were so concerned about Sam. That was a major hit, worse than a Gou'ald hand device, and those can throw you across a room."

Jack sighed. "Yeah, well, I think she's sleeping now. We'll see. I've contacted Hammond. He didn't give me any science updates though."

Teal'c broke in. "I have already made contact with the SGC, O'Neill, asking this question. Drs. Harris and Lee have indeed confirmed that the emissions occurred again at the exact time listed on your camera during your first contact."

"Do they have any idea what it was?"

Daniel answered. "No. I think they need Sam for that. But it's definitely alien technology that they've never seen before. And, although we don't know what it was, I think I know *who* it was."

"What?" Jack stared at him, unable to take in the comment.

"Everett Ruess."

"Who's Everett Ruess?"

"Here, see for yourself." Daniel adjusted the laptop and pulled up two adjacent images, one of the being who had beckoned Jack in the cave and another of a cowboy, in dirty western clothes. They were identical.

Jack stared at the screen. "I don't get it."

Daniel rubbed his eyes under his glasses. "I don't either. But it's real. Ruess was here in the 30s. Remember that I mentioned there were some strange things documented in Davis Gulch back then? Well, his was the most famous story. He was an artist, poet and naturalist that came out here from the east as a young man, and fell in love with the canyons. It was really wild here then; nothing and no one for hundreds of miles. In '34, he went out on his own and was never seen again. They searched the area and found his burros in a corral at the top of Davis, but never found any trace of him. He just disappeared."

Jack blew out a breath, sat down on the couch and rubbed his hands through his hair. "There are just too many things disappearing around here for my taste."

Daniel shrugged sympathetically. " Yeah, I see your point." He paused. "Only in this case, Ruess has apparently reappeared, or something that someone or something wants us to think resembles him has."

"I'm not sure that's any better."

Teal'c joined the conversation. "Indeed. It is not. I have questions concerning this film, O'Neill. Why did you move toward the apparition of Everett Ruess at first? It was most unwise and unlike you. "

"I couldn't do anything else, Teal'c. It was literally pulling me into the back of the cave, into the light. But then it saw Carter. And well, you saw. Whatever is in that cave deliberately attacked her. And pushed me away." He swallowed. "I almost didn't get to her."

"The film is unclear on what occurred next. You obviously reached Major Carter, but this must have been difficult."

"Yeah, it was suddenly freezing and the current was incredibly strong. It was weird. It was pushing me out of the cave at the same time that it was crushing her up against the wall. Her tanks were destroyed. I stayed next to the wall, got to her, got her tanks off and then we swam like the devil. Once we were out of the cave, it stopped."

"It allowed you to remove her from the location."

"I don't – I don't know. It didn't seem like it at the time, but … I don't know, Teal'c. Maybe."

"I think Teal'c's right, sir."

Jack looked up at Carter's entrance, exasperated. "I thought you were going to rest."

"I did. I'm fine."

He watched as she limped over to the couch. "Yeah, sure you are."

She ignored the comment, but accepted his offer of a blanket as she settled on the couch next to him. "I think we're mistaken, sir. It wasn't trying to kill me, just nullify what it saw as a threat, although I could never have broken free of the beam without you there. But once you came back for me, it let us both leave."

Jack raised his eyebrows. He moved her feet over to his lap casually to make more room on the couch. "It crushed you against the wall."

She leaned back against the side of the couch, putting a pillow behind her back to be more comfortable. "It crushed my tanks, although I'm not sure that was the intent. It just wanted to stop me."

"Why you, Sam? Why didn't it go after Jack?" Daniel stared at them both from his makeshift office on the table of the houseboat.

She grimaced, shifting. "I don't know, Daniel. Maybe something I touched? I did touch the anthromorphs outside the cave, or maybe it was the scanning device."

Daniel looked back at his laptop. "Ruess was talking to you, Jack. Could you understand what he said?"

Jack shook his head and moved his arm underneath Sam's blanket just to check once again that there were no broken bones, this time, the ankle on the leg she'd been limping, which was currently in his lap. Yeah, she did seem ok. At least, the light pressure he'd put on her ankle hadn't made her react. If it were joint ache from the bends, it would have hurt.

"Jack?"

He ignored what he thought was a really stupid question from Daniel when there were more important issues to consider.

"Jack?"

"Sure. Of course I could understand Ruess. No problem. We were 135 feet underwater in a cave. Great place for a conversation."

Daniel stared in annoyance. "I just meant that it could have telepathed the conversation." At Jack's look of incredulity, Daniel defended himself. "We've seen weirder things."

"Well, it didn't."

"It's too bad we can't decipher the words. The cave wasn't always underwater. It could have been a message."

Daniel started replaying the film.

Jack grimaced. "Daniel, I don't think Carter nor I need to relive that again."

"What?" Daniel looked up. "Oh, sorry." He moved his laptop out of Jack's visual range. "I just can't -. We need to contact the SGC. "

Jack stared at Daniel, exasperated. "I already did, Daniel, and Teal'c's already confirmed that there were emission signatures they don't understand yet. They know we're all right. I'm not doing it again until I have a plan."

"That's my point. I think I have part of the plan. We need Hoffman. She reads lips a lot better than I do. I can tell that Ruess isn't speaking English, German, French, Chinese, Italian, or, well, any of the 23 languages I'm familiar with, and it's not Gou'ald or Ancient either as far as I can tell. In fact, I think it's a variation of the Hopi native language. If she could mouth the words, I might be able to translate; or talk to some colleagues that could. It might be a message."

"Oh, here we go. Not everything wants to communicate."

"Well, this was. Think about it. It was motioning towards you until it saw Sam. We need to know what it was saying."

"I agree with Daniel, sir."

Jack sighed. "Of course you do."

Carter ignored him. "And as for an MO, I think we should hold off on the SGC sending in reserves. Daniel can send the film to Hoffman and she can use the Mountain's facilities to help translate. We need to go back down there ourselves. Now that I know what to expect, I should be able to get the data we need without putting any of the other scientists at risk."

Jack grimaced. He'd already decided they needed to revisit the site, but this time it was going to be on their terms, not the entities. "You are not going back down there, Carter. Teal'c and I will reconnoiter."

"But.."

"Ah, no. No diving until we're sure about decompression, the ribs and the ankle. You stay on the boat or evac to Page to get checked out. Your choice. You can update Teal'c and I on what we need to be looking for with the scanners."

"But…"

Jack stared her down.

She grimaced, acknowledging the order. Her disgruntled expression indicated that he hadn't heard the last of it, but for now she'd accepted the directive. He sighed. When he'd started this vacation idea, he hadn't expected Carter to be annoyed with him for the whole trip; part, sure, but the whole trip? Yeah. Murphy's law. It was predictable.

Daniel broke in. "I need to go as well, Jack."

"Of course you do."

"I mean it."

He rubbed his hands through his hair, thoroughly annoyed. "So do I. Stop, Daniel. I agree. We do need you down there; photographing and … doing whatever it is that you do. I must have missed something when I was filming."

"Not likely."

"What?"

Daniel cocked his head. "I said that it's not likely you missed anything as far as a threat assessment is concerned. But I need to see more of the ruin and what was around it. It's stunning - perfectly preserved, which is just not possible. There's no documentation that the archaeologists who researched this area before it was drowned ever located it."

He paused and rubbed his eyes, under his glasses. "And yet, for this area, it's a huge dwelling. There are much bigger sites elsewhere, Chaco, Mesa Verde, but this is perfect and was never identified. It looks like the construction is typical of the Chacoan era, somewhere between 900 and 1150 A.D, which should be impossible, or at least improbable. The Chaco phenomena didn't reach this far as far as we know. The T shape of the door and the careful layering of bricks gives it away. And yet, it's a cliff dwelling - which is more reminiscent of Mesa Verde, which was much later – 1100 to 1250, long after Chaco had been abandoned for the most part. So Chaco building techniques but Mesa Verde cliff dwelling design. It's unique. I need to see it."

"Daniel, this isn't about archaeology."

"I know. I mean, yes, I want to see it for that reason, but there's a lot more there. It's an anomaly. Something's off. It could provide us with information about who and what is causing this." He paused. "And that additional data could answer some questions about why Sam and not you was … nullified."

Jack got back to the point. "It's a deep dive, Daniel." He raised his hand when it looked like Daniel was going to interrupt. "I know you went through the training, but Carter and I barely made it out and we're both certified for deep diving and for unpressurized flying above 18,000 feet."

Daniel looked confused.

Jack grimaced and clarified. "Same decompression problem."

"Oh. Well, that's ok, then." He stared back at the laptop.

Jack closed his eyes, and then started in. "So, if I agree to this, you understand that we will have only ten minutes at depth, and that two of those Teal'c and I will need to make sure the situation there is secure." Teal'c's larva would protect him if things got ugly. Daniel was another case entirely.

"Yes."

Daniel was clearly ignoring him.

Jack tried again. "So, if I give the go ahead on including you in this expedition, you agree that Teal'c and I will do the heavy lifting, so to speak, you'll stay back and you will only have eight minutes to check this out."

"Yes, of course."

Huh. It had to be a first. Daniel was agreeing with him on procedure. Nah. He'd just been lulled into a false sense of security. "So, you will stay away from the ruin until Teal'c and I check it out."

"Sure. I want to investigate Sam's anthromorphs at the entrance to the cave first."

Jack repeated himself. With Daniel it was best to be really, really clear. "And you will only have eight minutes to play."

Daniel ignored him, staring at his laptop and the film again.

"Daniel."

"What?"

"Do you understand you will have less than ten minutes?"

Daniel finally looked up, something in Jack's tone breaking finally through. "Yes, of course. I know the diving tables. The SGC's training was a refresher course for me, although some of it was pretty… redundant. I spent a lot of time diving in Greece."

Carter broke in, clearly confused. "When did you do that, Daniel? I thought you researched Egyptian culture and history before the SGC."

He looked back down at the laptop. "Oh, I did. But there was a period when I thought it was possible to find Atlantis. Diving was necessary."

Jack broke in; he couldn't help it. "Atlantis? It's a myth."

Daniel looked up at that. "So are aliens that land space ships on pyramids."

Jack put his head back on the couch, incredibly tired and got back, yet again, to the point. "You will only have eight minutes in the cave. And that's only if Teal'c and I OK site. Got it?"

"Yes."

Jack wasn't sure that Daniel had gotten anything, but he was too tired to argue. He closed his eyes, resting.

And then woke as Daniel interrupted the break. He didn't know how long he'd been sleeping, but it couldn't have been that long. The sun was still up around the canyon walls. He turned and looked at Carter, pleased that she was asleep, resting on the couch.

"Jack -"

"Ack. Thanks for the wake up call, Daniel."

"Ah. Sorry."

Jack sat up and ran his hands through his hair, carefully moving Carter's feet off his lap and onto the couch.

"What?"

"I am sorry. It's only been about five minutes. I thought you were awake."

Jack shrugged, getting the cobwebs out of his brain. "What is it, Daniel?"

"It's just that the film is really unclear about what you saw inside the ruin. I think you were too close to document it effectively. If you'd … well, anyway, what did you see?"

"There was nothing in it, just some carvings on wall next to it. They weren't highlighted or anything. I'm sure there are some views of it on the film. "

Sam stirred, waking from her own nap. She raised her arms above her head. "What did you say, Daniel?"

"I asked Jack about the carvings on the wall next to the ruin."

Sam broke in, looking at him. "You touched them."

Jack stared at her, confused. "I did nothing of the sort."

She shook her head, and shifted, sitting up. "You did, sir. I saw you."

"Jack actually touched something?" Daniel grinned. Jack could tell that Daniel was going to use this for years. After all, he had repeatedly reamed both Daniel and Carter out for doing the same for the last three years. It usually resulted in … yeah, whatever.

But in this case, Carter was wrong. He was sure she was. "I didn't touch anything. "

Sam broke in, apologetically. " You really did, sir. It was right before the wall started vibrating."

Daniel looked back at the film. "I think you did, Jack. Here, look at this." He turned his laptop toward the couch.

As evidence, it was unarguable. But it still wasn't true. "I don't remember doing it. In fact, I would never do that."

There was silence as they all took in the implications. Daniel finally responded. "And yet, you did." Daniel paused, thinking, and then continued on. "Maybe that's what started the... interaction."

He looked back at Jack. "Nothing happened until you put your hand on the wall, right?"

"I told you, Daniel. I don't remember **putting** my hand on the wall."

"Sir, Daniel has a point. The glow and … the cowboy…did show up after you touched the wall."

"Everett Ruess."

Carter stared at Daniel. "You know who it is?"

Daniel waved his hand, staring at his laptop. "Yeah, I'll update you later. The thing is I am almost sure I have seen the design of the petroglyph Jack touched somewhere else. I can't remember …"

"Daniel." Jack decided it was time to bring the man back on track, yet again.

"Huh? Oh, sorry."

Carter jumped in. "It's possible, sir. You could have activated something by touching the wall - we've seen it before."

And that was not something he wanted to remember. In fact, he couldn't remember it. The whole head sucky thing was best totally forgotten, in his opinion, even if it had meant that the Asgard had taken a renewed interest in Earth.

"I don't remember touching the wall."

Daniel broke in. "You did, so just give it up, Jack."

Jack rubbed his hands eyes. "OK, even if I did, why did it want to play nice with me and beat up Carter?"

Carter swallowed and turned away, and it suddenly clicked for Jack as well. He wished he could take back the sentence - he didn't want to hurt her or remind her of her experiences, but he couldn't leave it alone and ignore the possibility. They had to work it out.

She finally commented, "It could be Jolinar. It could have recognized the residue."

Teal'c interrupted. "It is possible, Major Carter. It is also possible that whatever is there simply did not expect two individuals or a female. On the mission tomorrow, we may be able to verify your premise if …it… reacts to my Gou'ald larva."

Daniel interrupted, supporting Teal'c. "We don't have anything yet, Sam. Just some theory that could be all wrong."

Jack grimaced, finally waking up, sort of. "Yeah, that's just great. So, Carter's emissions are playing mind games and being picky about who gets have play dates in the playground. We have thousands of dead unaccounted for 1000 years ago, a dead poet who's decided to speak Greek -"

"I really think it's a derivative of Hopi."

Jack glared at Daniel, "—as I said, a dead poet who's decided to speak an unknown language and who's probably a hologram anyway that -"

"Not a hologram, sir. I'm pretty sure of that. And the emissions aren't playing mind games. There's something else there; something's controlling what we've seen. And anyway, I'm not the one that, theoretically, identified the emissions. It was the Asgard technology that -"

He glared at Carter as well and then calmed down, thinking about what she'd said, or rather the fact that she'd said it. If she was well enough to get technical with him she was probably OK.

"- and that's why I really need to be there to check on the data related to the emissions."

He broke out of his funk at that comment. "Not going to happen, Carter."

"But-"

Teal'c broke in. "O'Neill, the rain has stopped. The clouds are breaking, with the promise of good weather tomorrow. The mission is best left until then. There are no obvious threats emerging from Davis Gulch at this time, but General Hammond must be informed of our next steps."

"I know." Jack grimaced. While he had the rest of the op tomorrow clear in his head, he was still debating whether or not to evac Carter out to Page before.

Teal'c seemed to read his mind. "As you have outlined, Major Carter will remain on the boat and we will monitor her progress this evening. If necessary, she will be conducted to Page, Arizona where there is a medical base tomorrow."

Carter looked like she was going to kill someone, probably him, but subsided when T gave her the eyebrow.

Jack grinned.

"All right, kids. Here's the plan. Daniel, send the film off to Hoffman. Let's see if she comes up with anything. You, Teal'c and I will head back down to the cave, after Carter gives us a science lesson on her equipment tomorrow at first light. Carter stays on the boat. I'll contact Hammond and let him know what's up so the SGC can monitor for emissions and have another team ready if needed. Carter will run SAR from here if things go FUBAR."

Carter shifted. "I can rig up communication between the speedboat and the houseboat in order to keep up to date." She started to get up.

"Tomorrow, Carter. You'll do it in the morning."

"I can't – "

He stared her down.

She put her head back on the pillows and closed her eyes. "Fine."

He didn't say anything, because he didn't know what to say. The CO half wanted to ream her out for the attitude and another part of him was just thankful that she'd agreed to lay low for a while.

Eventually, even he noticed that the silence in the room was getting uncomfortable.

Teal'c finally broke in. "Your plan is sensible, O'Neill. In the interim, we all require sustenance as it is late in the day and your excursion with Major Carter eliminated what you call….'lunch.'. I propose that we cook dinner. You mentioned ribs last night. And there are sufficient vegetables and fruit to be adequate." He glanced at Daniel. "We should prepare the meal."

For once, Jack actually couldn't read Daniel's expression as the man stared at Teal'c. Then Daniel stood up heading to the refrigerator. "Sure. Time enough for other things, unless of course, the cave explodes in the next hour or so. And of course we have no way of knowing that. So, time is right. Let's eat." The irony in his voice was unmistakable.

Sam broke in. "We will know. The SGC will alert us immediately if there's a problem. You know that, Daniel."

Teal'c interrupted. "We are aware of that, Major Carter." He stared at Daniel again. "You will help prepare the meal."

Daniel seemed to come out of some sort of funk. He shook his head. "Sorry. I was just thinking about—of course I'll help." He headed off to the kitchen area of the cabin to help Teal'c.

And that, Jack thought, seemed to be that, as he settled down on the couch, closed his eyes, and slipped into a nap that was essential, and welcoming. Daniel and T were watching their backs, and Sam and he were resting after a damned awful day for her. He moved his hand back onto her sore ankle.

It would be all right.


	11. Chapter 11

11.

A/N. I should have mentioned in prior chapters that Everett Ruess is a real person, who really did die in Davis Gulch in the way described- which is, no one knows. I think I'm out of copyright issues, etc. due to the date, but seriously, this is a work of fiction, and not intended to harm or annoy anyone. Any take on the man's persona is totally mine.

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Sam watched, worried, as the guys headed out towards Davis Gulch. She really should be with them. The good news was that the Colonel hadn't insisted on evac-ing her out to Page, she was past the window for decompression sickness, and she was sure there were no broken ribs. The bad news was that the bruises were pretty ugly and predictably getting worse. They always did, second day.

The sun was raising over the canyon walls, creating mirrored reflections in the water, a glassy calm. It was going to be a glorious day, which would have been great if she'd been with her team. She wasn't. She ignored the beauty and walked… well… limped back into the main cabin and pulled out her laptop.

It was a waiting game, now. And if the guys didn't show in four hours time, she was heading the houseboat into the channel, come hell or high or low or narrow water.

Huh. She'd clearly been hanging around the Colonel too long.

At least she'd rigged up the speedboat so she could communicate with them while they were in it. Speaking of that…

"Sir?" She flipped on the transmitter.

"Carter, I'm piloting." He was clearly exasperated. "Here."

She waited and after some fumbling, Daniel picked up the device. "Sam, everything's fine. We're just turning into Davis Gulch."

"You're sure of the coordinates?"

Daniel didn't answer and there was static again.

"Carter, in case you've forgotten, because I haven't, I've been here before. Less than 24 hours ago. Even my senility isn't that bad. We'll contact you prior to heading into the water. O'Neill out."

OK, so maybe she'd jumped the gun. But she really should be with the guys. Jeez. She had to get a grip. They were on a mission. She should be glad that the Colonel finally recognized it as such and was in military mode. Instead, she was just annoyed that she wasn't with her team and no one was giving her a blow-by-blow.

She settled down determinedly onto the couch in the main area to wait.

Thirty minutes later she got a message.

"Major, we're heading into the site. Speedboat's docked at the same location as yesterday. O'Neill out."

He cut the connection before she could say anything.

OK, that was a wake up call. It was an op; she needed to stay focused. And apparently the Colonel also thought she needed a reminder that her team could handle things without her.

She hunkered down and watched the data coming in about the emissions. Nothing. There was nothing. It felt like she was staring for hours. She grimaced and got a grip.

She calculated their journey. Seeing as she was devoid of any real data, she had to rely on prediction and assumption. So, assuming that the Colonel dived immediately to the site, which he was sure to do, and spent the maximum ten minutes there, and then came up safely, slowly, the probable time that they were diving to get to the site and then back up again was 37 minutes, without swimming to the boat. So, 40 minutes at the earliest until they made contact; longer, if they didn't call her immediately for some reason. And if they didn't, the reason why could be anything, ranging from nothing to immediate disaster.

She waited, every minute ticking into her bones.

"Major."

"Sir?" She grabbed the transmitter. She checked the clock. It had been an hour since they'd left speedboat and headed down into the cave.

"We're headed back. ETA at 1100 hours."

"Acknowledged. Sir, you're late. What happened?"

"Hard to explain, Carter. We're all OK. O'Neill out."

She headed to the back of the houseboat and waited.

Again.

Waiting was really not her strong suit. She was worried about the guys. And, truth be told, she was annoyed with the Colonel for keeping her onboard, annoyed with herself for getting injured to begin with, annoyed with Teal'c for supporting the Colonel's position about her staying onboard, and annoyed with Daniel because he got to go on the mission.

She grimaced. They were all right. The Colonel had told her so. But she was… not good. She *so* missed her lab. Here, there was nothing she could do but wait.

And, as waiting apparently involved wallowing in what were, if she was honest with herself, unfair personal grudges, she needed to get a clue.

She could do better than this.

She contacted the SGC to see if Harris and Lee had detected anything, but they'd come up empty as well. Then she checked to see if Hoffman had decoded Ruess' message. Apparently, the woman was still working on it, but had confirmed Daniel's theory that it was a derivative of Hopi.

Just peachy, as the Colonel would say.

Yeah, there was nothing at the SGC, which just left her with sitting on the couch of the houseboat, waiting to hear what had happened on a mission she should have been on which just, yep, totally sucked, as the Colonel would say.

And now she was having conversations with herself, imagining what the Colonel would say. So… not.. good.

On the other hand, some of this … dithering on her part was the Colonel's fault.

What could be so hard to explain that he couldn't give her three sentences so she could mull over the ramifications of their expedition instead of sitting here… waiting?

He was totally unreasonable. Impossible.

Her CO.

Ah jeez. He had every right to decide when a debrief occurred and who was assigned to a mission. She was totally out of line and if he was just … wrong, she should just … deal. And yet…

Jeez, she really, really hated waiting without any data to analyze. It meant she had to think about things she normally ignored, like personal stuff. She wasn't good at it, but she didn't think she was oblivious.

For example, the Colonel was being erratic. One day he sets up a vacation for her; the next, he talks about her next CO and tells her to tone it down. And then he got her out of that godforsaken cave and checked her injuries. He'd been completely cheerful, then cranky, then thoughtful and now cranky again. It was totally unlike him to switch so quickly without a clear reason.

What was going on?

Not to mention that he'd ignored the mission at first and now was in full Colonel mission mode.

She groaned. She really hated waiting. It'd happened too many times – like Edora, but there at least she had something to work on.

Here…

It was really bad for her health, not to mention the possible insubordination charges that she might ensue and ruin her career if she actually said what she thought when they finally got back.

If nothing else, she had to make him understand that he couldn't just go…play … without her along. CO or not. And her injuries… okay, maybe he had a point. But he could least give her some damned data to think about while she worried.

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Jack jumped off the speedboat and grabbed the ropes from Teal'c to secure it to the back of the houseboat. He stopped, short, when he saw Carter's expression. There was no other way to describe it – she was glowering at him.

Again.

Huh. Maybe he should have evac-ed her to Page. "You alright, Carter?"

"I'm fine. What happened?"

Okay, that was pretty testy, even for Carter in possible pain. He stared at her suspiciously.

Daniel finally answered. "There was nothing there."

"What? Really?"

Jack broke in because it looked to him like she was possibly going to annihilate anyone in sight, especially Daniel, if she didn't get more intel. "It was all gone, Carter. All of it. There was no ruin; no evil entities outside the cave; nothing. Even your tanks were gone. There was literally nothing there."

Carter stared at him. "That's not possible."

"I know. That's what I said." He headed in towards the main area to deposit his gear, Teal'c and Daniel following.

She followed in after them. "Did you check the -?"

He interrupted. "Yeah, of course."

Teal'c broke in. "We followed your instructions carefully, Major Carter. There were no energy readings."

Jack started breaking down his equipment. "Anything at the SGC or here?"

"No." Carter flopped down on the couch, clearly disgruntled. He shrugged, and headed into his quarters. There'd be time enough for discussion.

She was still on the couch, lost in thought, when he returned from changing out of his wetsuit.

He sat down next to her, silent, and watched as Daniel came in from stowing the air tanks at the back of the boat.

Daniel grabbed some water and sat down across from them. "It was amazing, Sam. If I hadn't seen the film, I would never have believed anything was there. It was totally empty; not even a rock out of place. In fact, if we hadn't seen what we have seen on other planets, I'd be convinced you two were pulling our legs with some sort of elaborate hoax on the film you brought back."

He paused, thinking. "It could be the Asgards."

Jack shrugged. "Hammond's trying to reach Thor. He'd have contacted Carter if he was successful while we were gone."

Carter broke in. "It can't be the Asgards. It's something or someone else that must have similar technology. The energy emissions weren't Asgard signatures, and anyway, Thor would have told us if there was some sort of device on Earth when he gave us the monitoring equipment."

"Great. So, we've got nothing." Disgruntled himself, Jack headed to the fridge for a beer. "Carter? Daniel?" He gestured to each to see if they wanted one, but no one answered. They were both lost in thought.

"We have the tape. Did Hoffman send back anything, Sam?"

"She agrees that it's probably a derivative of Hopi, but no one at the SGC can decipher it yet. She did say that she has been able to lip read the sounds."

"Huh. I better call in, but it's not going to be easy. No one at the SGC speaks Hopi, let alone a derivative. You know, it's not far from here to one of the Reservations. We could check with the locals."

Jack broke in. "Or not. Classified, Daniel."

Daniel shook his head. "Of course. Sorry. It's just that it's our only chance to understand what was said." He paused. "Or maybe not."

Carter cocked her head, intrigued. "What are you thinking, Daniel?"

Jack watched as Daniel put his feet up on the coffee table, rubbing two fingers together as he thought through the problem.

"Honestly, I'd completely forgotten about it until we started talking about hoaxes."

Jack interrupted. "No one was talking about hoaxes except you."

Daniel stared at him, clearly annoyed. "That's not the point. Or rather, it is the point."

Jack stared back, annoyed himself. "Could we actually get to the point?"

"I have a colleague who's an archaeologist that-

"Well, seeing as you are one, that useful to hear."

"Quit being an ass, Jack, and let me finish."

"Ah jeez. Go ahead." He flopped down on the couch and put his head back, waiting.

"Thank you. Saunders was an expert on the Navajo and Hopi cultures, as well as the Anasazi. It was back in the late 70s, I think, when he was completely discredited. I'd almost forgotten about it."

"What happened, Daniel?"

"He claimed that the Anasazi had returned, but they weren't human. They were aliens walking among us, and that he had proof. He showed a video. People thought it was an elaborate hoax and that he was doing it for the publicity and the press. Needless to say, he was drummed out of academia after that."

"Yeah, well, it does sound like he had a few loose screws."

"Of course it does. We all know that archaeologists that claim there are aliens on Earth are nuts."

Jack sighed. "Point taken. But I still don't see why you're bringing him up."

"Jack, he's still alive, working in the southwest somewhere. He speaks Hopi and he's already discredited. As we all know, no one believes discredited archaeologists. We can use that to our advantage. We can have him sign a disclosure agreement, but even if he talks, people will think it's just more of the same… craziness he spouted in the 70s."

Carter broke in. "What if he really did have proof? He might know something we don't, sir. Someone needs to check him out."

Teal'c came in from showering. "I agree, O'Neill. It is a lead we must investigate."

Jack sighed. "All right, but I still think it's a waste of time. Daniel, you and T can check it out, but you're not to take the film itself. Whatever Hoffman has in terms of sounds is going to have to be enough. Even that's dangerous. Sandman's not to know where the tape originated."

"Saunders."

Jack rolled his eyes, irritated that Daniel hadn't gotten the joke.

Daniel got up, completely missing Jack's annoyance and headed toward Carter's command center on the lower level. "I need to talk to Hoffman and see if she can get me an address."

"I will prepare the afternoon meal." Teal'c wondered off to the fridge and then to the upper deck.

Which left Carter and him. He took a sip of beer and decided to take the bull by the horns, so to speak, although Carter would shoot him if she knew he was using that particular analogy, even in his head.

"OK, Carter, spill."

"I don't know what you mean, sir."

He took another sip of beer, cocked his head, and waited.

She finally broke. "If left behind on a mission, I would appreciate being more fully informed of your progress, sir."

"Pissed that you weren't in the middle of the action, huh?"

"I – no, sir. That's not it. "

He stared at her knowingly.

Her color rose but she held firm. She swallowed and looked away. "I admit that I think I should have been on the mission, sir. But that's not what concerns me."

"Then what?"

She swallowed. "I understand your decision. There were only three sets of tanks. One of us needed to stay behind to monitor progress and set up a SAR if necessary. I was the target once, and I was injured. I understand why you left me out of the recon."

He tried again. "Then what?"

She swallowed again and said firmly, "I don't consider 'it's hard to explain' being fully informed. Sir."

OK, that was annoying. She was totally out of line. He called the shots. "Major, I don't have to explain when or what I choose to explain or not."

He couldn't believe he was having this conversation. She knew perfectly well how they operated; she'd been his second for three years.

He stopped suddenly. Three years where she had never been the one left behind. Different team dynamics. He swallowed, suddenly envisioning Carter sitting in the houseboat, waiting, with nothing to do. She never had nothing to do. It must have been … really, really irritating, not to mention that she'd probably been worried about them. And, of course, she was still sore from yesterday's little excursion. No wonder she was annoyed. Not that he should care about that, but… he did. Different team dynamics. He needed to adjust.

"I know that, sir. I apologize."

"What?"

Oh, yeah. He'd just reamed her out for mentioning that she wanted additional information when he hadn't delivered.

"There's nothing to apologize for and don't ever do it again, unless you've killed me or something, and then you probably will have done it for a reason and I won't care anyway because I'll be dead."

"Sir?"

For crying out loud, where was he?

"Carter, the point is that I'm not going to change. You won't get a blow-by-blow from me if you're not there because that's not how I operate." He stared at her. "And you know that. It's not how anyone in command should operate. It's distracting."

"Understood, sir." She was clearly upset, but accepted the reprimand. He grimaced, annoyed with himself, not her. He hadn't explained his position correctly.

"No, you don't, because I agree with you. While I won't do it, it is a legitimate request. There's no reason why we couldn't have contacted you and given you specifics once it was safe. In the future, I'll give Daniel the comm so you can get an update asap and then you can… think about things."

She looked surprised at his concession. Huh. To be honest, he was a little surprised he'd agreed to it himself.

But this was Carter, not Kawalsky. She needed to keep her mind busy. Of course, Kawalsky wouldn't have cared to begin with and would never have requested data immediately. He gave it up. The comparison between them that he kept trying to make was rapidly going downhill fast. In fact, he was pretty sure it had already hit rock bottom.

Different team dynamics. Carter was different from any second he'd had. And his annoyance today was unlike any he'd ever had related to a second. He tried to put himself in her position. What would he have done if left behind with no data?

Well. That was easy. He'd have grumped at the whole Powers that were in a really snarky way. Carter was a master at it. She was actually polite, not snarky. He felt proud as her CO and horrified at the same time. A really, really good second, which she was, would save his assets when necessary but would be tough to deal with when they didn't agree. At least that had been true in the past. He mentally revised his earlier thought that she'd never been left behind before, remembering the time that Thor had beamed him up for what he thought was a suicide mission and she'd beamed up with the explosives, going over his head to get Hammond's approval. Yeah, hell on wheels.

Different team dynamics. Yeah, he was pretty sure that was a mantra he needed to keep in mind, not that he believed in mantras. But hey, whatever worked.

"You ok, sir?"

He looked up from his beer, and there it was. The classic Carter smile, the one she only directed at him, as far as he could tell. It washed over him like the sunshine outside today, somehow making the issues between them light and bright rather than the complicated cold and grey of the day before.

"Yeah, fine."

"Thank you, sir."

He grinned back. "You're welcome." He gestured between them with his beer. "So, we're ok, here?"

She grinned again. "Definitely."

He turned as Daniel suddenly headed into the room, head down, looking at some data. "Jack, I – oh. Sorry to interrupt."

"You didn't. What did you find out?" If it came out more cheerfully than he intended, well... not his fault.

Daniel glanced at him suspiciously. "Are you OK?"

He grimaced. Daniel was always a pain. "Yes. What?"

Daniel grabbed the chair opposite the couch and stared at him for a moment. "Okay, that's better. "

"What?"

Daniel grinned. "I have the data on Saunders. He lives in the Four Corners area, in fact close to here. Down by Bluff, Utah. Apparently, it's unknown how he makes a living these days, but the rumor is that he hunts pots."

"He does what?"

"Hunts pots. There's a huge black market for Anasazi pottery. And yes, Jack, I know you don't want to hear the detailed history of the Anasazi so I'll stop for now. But there's a connection to what we've seen and the Anasaz story. I'm sure of it. And I bet Saunders is involved somehow."

Jack sighed. "Of course you are."

"It's important."

"I know you think that. How far is it?"

"Three hours maybe four, after we get back to Bullfrog."

"Okay, so we can't leave the area until Hammond gets another team in to continue surveillance. That will be late tomorrow morning at the earliest. After the SGC shows, we can head back to Bullfrog and you and T can take the jeep to Bluff and then catch up with Carter and I at the Butler Wash site. Maybe something will turn up there."

"Why wait?"

"What?"

"It's only 11:30 now. Teal'c and I can take the speedboat up now and catch Saunders at dinner."

"Carter and I might need it if we need to head into Davis again."

"Well, then give us a ride to the Marina. It can't be more than an hour at the speed that thing goes. Teal'c and I can spend the night in Bluff and meet you tomorrow at the Butler Wash site."

"I—". Jack stopped dead in his tracks. He couldn't say what he was thinking; that it was a bad idea to spend the night alone with Carter on the houseboat. Just saying it would raise a red flag he didn't want raised. They were on a mission. It was completely normal for two teammates to wait out surveillance together while the rest investigated something else. At least it was when they weren't on Earth.

The location changed everything, and yet it shouldn't. And that was impossible to explain to anyone, including himself.

He sighed. "Alright. Get your gear."


	12. Chapter 12

12.

Daniel glared at the house, although it really wasn't the house's fault it had taken Teal'c and he so long to locate the place. And it shouldn't have taken so long. There were 350 residents in Bluff, for heaven's sake. But that also meant … no signs whatsoever. Anywhere.

OK, it wasn't the house's fault. He stared at the structure. It was actually a classic - completely made of stone, although its roof was dilapidated from years of neglect. It must have been built during the early days of the Mormon settlement around the late 1880s.

He turned away and glanced at the San Juan River in front of the house, gradually making its way down to Glen Canyon. Amazing the house had stood the test of time along those waters before they'd been … civilized… by the dam down river. Even now, the river was running full speed. The San Juan was a quarter mile, probably more, across, and steadily headed on its downward path, though now regulated.

He tried to image what it must have been like when settlers had started homes here and then were predictably drowned out by the surges. It must have been tough.

At least the town was appropriately named. The high ridge of rock he could see across the river, the bluff, was stunning; reds, orange, gold, browns with desert varnish coloring the sandstone. He wished Sam were here to tell him what he was seeing, time wise. There were at least 10 strata, maybe more, of rock, each a story. As an archaeologist, he "knew rocks", of course, but he wasn't a geologist, and didn't have Sam's comprehensive understanding of geologic formations. And he'd never really worked in this part of the world. Most of his time had been in the Middle East, specifically Egypt.

"Daniel Jackson?" Teal'c closed the jeep's side door and raised an eyebrow.

"Yeah, Teal'c. Sorry. Just looking at the view."

"It is most impressive. Glen Canyon must have been similar, although on a much larger scale, before it was dammed."

"Yeah. I guess. We should… " He gestured towards the house.

"I agree. It is preferable that whatever information Dr. Saunders is able to supply is revealed as soon as possible."

Daniel turned and knocked on the front door. It was wood, carefully preserved, an anomaly from the red stone of the building. The ground-level entrance of the house was covered by a wood overhang providing shade for a chair set on one side.

No answer. He knocked again. And waited.

The door finally opened and a short, grizzled man in his 60s looked out at him. He was stooped and sun burnt, but with the energy of a man thirty years old and a look in his eyes that made Daniel take a step back.

Daniel was suddenly glad Teal'c was there.

"Jackson."

Daniel stared at Saunders, surprised. "I'm sorry, but I don't remember. Have we met?"

"Of course not. But I figured you'd eventually end up here." He glanced at Teal'c. "Who's your friend?"

"This is … Murray."

Teal'c said nothing, but acknowledged Saunders greeting with a bow.

Saunders turned and gestured them in.

Daniel scrutinized the room. By anyone else's standards, it was a mess. But from an archeologist's eye, it was amazing. Saunders was carefully documenting shards, pots, and timelines, as Sam would say, from the Anasazi. It was a museum, a monument, carefully organized and preserved.

"I – oh… wow."

Saunders grinned. "I thought you'd like it. I've been wondering when you'd show."

He gestured to Daniel and Teal'c to sit on the small space available away from his exhibit. "Rumor has it that you were meticulous in your research until you went over the edge."

Daniel sat. "Was I supposed to … show?"

Saunders looked up from the shards he was fitting into a case. He shrugged and finally commented, "All the crazy ones do eventually. I thought you'd show up earlier, though, right after your insane statement about aliens using the pyramids for landing sites nearly five years ago.

"Crazy, by the way. They would never do that."

Daniel stared at the man, totally confused. "They… wouldn't."

Saunders walked away from the shards, and sat next to Daniel. "Of course not. Don't need space ships if you've got teleportation devices."

"Uhuh." Daniel wondered vaguely what Thor would think about that comment, and then decided that if Saunders was unhinged, he wasn't far behind.

Saunders stared at him. "You really are nuts. That was a joke." He paused. "Look, I'm going to tell you the same thing I tell every wacko that ends up here. There are no aliens. I tried a publicity stunt and it cost me my career. End of story, except that if you think aliens are real, I'd recommend some counseling and Prozac."

Daniel lifted his glasses and rubbed his eyes, trying to absorb the comment. "So, nothing was true in what you described."

"Of course not."

"The film was a fake." Daniel rubbed his eyes again, and then lowered his glasses, still trying to absorb the conversation.

"Yeah, I think you're finally getting the picture." Saunders grinned at the pun.

Teal'c broke in. "Is there a copy of this fake available?"

"Why do you want to know?"

Daniel broke in. "No reason in particular. Just interested."

Saunders stared at him suspiciously. "Don't have any copies. Burned the original. So, if there's nothing else, maybe you and… Murray could head on your way." He started to get up.

Daniel put his hand on the man's arm, keeping him still. "Rumor has it that yours was a class act. We wanted to see and hear it from the source. I'm sorry to waste your time."

At that, Saunders subsided. "It's gone, Jackson. I got rid of it all. But I see your point. Your 'crazed interpretations' didn't make nearly the press that mine did." Saunders turned away, grinning. "None the less, I've deleted all files that I can find." He turned back. "Once you've made the point, it's better that way."

Daniel interrupted, honestly confused. "Why did you do it? You must have known that you'd be discovered - you'd lose your position, credibility. Everything." He looked around him, saddened by the lack of resources and yet clear expertise in the meticulous displays Saunders had created.

Saunders stared at him knowingly. "Why did you?"

"Excuse me?"

"You proposed an insane theory by anyone's standards. Why did you do it?" He continued before Daniel could say anything. "You're not the serious nuts type that usually shows up here; they're normally out of here in thirty seconds, so it must have been for the publicity as well."

"No, I -"

"Look, Jackson, just get to the point. If you want help with the black market, I can't do it. We're in completely different fields."

"The black market?"

Saunders stared at him like he was an idiot. "What *have* you been doing for the last five years?"

Daniel finally got the point. "So, you set up the publicity stunt knowing it would put your name out there as a disgraced expert on southwestern antiquities and then … capitalized on that." He looked around the room again. The poor state of repairs couldn't be ignored.

Saunders grinned. "You should see the place in Bali. This is window dressing." Saunders shifted his position, looking out the literal window and then back again, staring at Daniel knowingly. "You must be doing pretty well yourself." He glanced at Teal'c, "bodyguard and all. But you do tend to scope out dangerous territory so I guess that's understandable."

Daniel picked up the conversation, surreal as it was. "Yeah, I'm doing fine."

"Did you get the idea from me?" Saunders smiled at the thought.

Daniel went along for the ride. "Of course. That's why I came. I wanted to thank you for the idea of promoting oneself by promoting the insane idea of aliens- one scholar to another. I can't publish an acknowledgement, of course, so I thought in person was appropriate. And we've done well by it." He looked to Teal'c, whose expression was impassive.

Saunders smiled. "You're welcome." He shifted again, clearly thinking of something else and then stood. "So, a pleasure, I'm sure. Thanks for coming."

As a dismissal, it was clear.

"Daniel Jackson." Teal'c stayed seated.

"Yeah, I got it."

Daniel sighed. "Actually, I'm here for another reason as well. I hope it might be lucrative for us both."

Saunders stayed standing, but looked interested. "Really. What? I can't imagine anything that would involve my field and yours."

Daniel cleared his throat. "Yes, that would be strange. But could you listen to this for a moment and see if you can understand it?"

He glanced at Teal'c. "We found in it … well… no need to know, as they say. But it sounded like a derivative of Hopi to me, and I'm curious. And as you are the world's expert, " he grinned at Saunders, "although discredited, of course, I'd like to hear your opinion."

Saunders stared at him. "I can do that." He gestured to the one open table, and they set up the player.

Saunders went through the tape five times, listening to Hoffman's interpretation. "Sorry, but I can't help you. It's not Hopi."

"I thought it might be a derivative."

Saunders looked up. "If it is, I can't decipher it with this verbal translation someone's given you. It's too raw. " He paused. "You found this in the Middle East?"

Daniel shrugged, hoping that was enough answer.

Saunders stared out the window, listening to the tape yet again. "Well, not Hopi. That' s all I can tell you." He stood up, clearly prepared to throw his visitors out for the final time.

Daniel acknowledged the refusal and walked to the door, taking the tape. "Thanks for your time. I had hoped it might be advantageous for us both."

Saunders stared him down. "Not that I can see. Good bye."

He closed the door in Daniel's face. Daniel turned to Teal'c. "Well, that was interesting."

"O'Neill and General Hammond will not be pleased that there were no 'lack of disclosure' documents signed prior to your releasing the tapes."

Daniel grimaced. "Yeah, but…"

"There is no but, Daniel Jackson."

"It's try, Teal'c. 'There is no try'."

Teal'c just stared him down.

He sighed, annoyed that anyone had ever introduced Teal'c to Star Wars. Who had? Oh yeah, that had been him.

"It wasn't the right time. I just didn't think that letting him know the US government was interested was a good idea."

"And so you have released classified information to an individual who we know little about and can who use this information in whatever way he chooses without penalty."

Daniel finally glanced at Teal'c. "You didn't buy his act either."

"I did not."

Daniel sighed. "Yeah. He knows something. Worst case is that he translated the tape, knows what was said and plans to do something about it. Medium case is he translated but didn't know what to do with it and decided to play dumb. Best case is - I can't think of a any."

"Nor can I."

Daniel rallied. "It's possible he doesn't know anything and is just a dirt bag taking advantage of the current black market for antiquities, which is disgusting, but at least not dangerous. He could have just decided to not tell us what he'd deciphered because he didn't want to risk that."

"His illegal selling habits appear at this time to have little to do with our mission. His possible understanding of the translation of the film does."

Daniel grimaced, no longer enjoying the view.

"What do you propose next?" Teal'c looked at him, waiting.

Daniel got in the jeep and started it up. "Jack will want damage control. We need to get to the SGC and get the film translated immediately."

"This will result in Major Carter and O'Neill heading to the next site without our support and Major Carter is injured."

Teal'c looked as annoyed as Daniel had ever seen him.

Daniel sighed. "Okay, it was a bad idea to come here."

Teal'c stared at him, saying nothing.

He sighed. "And it was not the best move on my part to give him the tape without the disclosures signed. But I don't think just signing something would have stopped him from doing anything he wanted, and if he isn't going to act on the data, it won't matter anyway."

He thought it through. "What's done is done. I know Sam and Jack are headed out to Butler Wash, but my gut says that this story is in this transmission. We need to decipher it. It's the only other lead we have. And we need to let Jack and Sam know why it's urgent."

"The urgency is due to your interaction with your colleague."

He sighed. "Yeah. I'm sorry, Teal'c. I didn't expect this. I'll contact Jack. He's not going to be happy about this."

"Annoyance would be an appropriate reaction. He also will not agree to your proposal to return to the SGC and a change in mission plan."

Daniel grimaced. "OK, so we're agreed."

"That is accurate, Daniel Jackson."

"I'm going to go anyway."

Teal'c stared him down.

Daniel swallowed. "Are you coming with me or not?"

"I do not believe I have a choice in this matter. There is only one vehicle and O'Neill has ordered that I remain with you."

Teal'c got in the jeep, ignoring him. Daniel sighed. Okay, Teal'c was annoyed and Jack was going to be pissed. Great day. Just great. Maybe if he could decipher the message quickly they'd get over it sooner rather than later. At least Sam would understand.


	13. Chapter 13

13. OK, next two chapters for S/J folks and some character development. And then we're back to the story. Thanks for the reviews and comments! I appreciate them. FYI, this one is very short…probably should have combined it with the next, but really different POVs.

sjsjsjsjsj

Jack gunned the motor as he headed back to the houseboat after dropping off Teal'c and Daniel. The day was spectacular – blue skies, blue water and red rocks. The late fall weather was cool enough to be invigorating, not too hot.

And Carter was waiting for him at the houseboat. There'd be enough time, if nothing happened at the site, to even do some fishing and then have a quiet dinner with her.

The whole thing was what he'd imagined and the idea that it was actually happening was making him totally nuts. It was a fantasy, for crying out loud. Just a thought. It wasn't supposed to be real.

Crap.

CO. He needed to tattoo it on his forehead as a reminder; nah, he wouldn't see it there. Maybe his right hand. Or elsewhere. He grimaced and got his mind out of… yeah, wherever.

The last time they had been alone on a mission they hadn't been strictly alone. Teal'c had been there as well during the week while they'd waited and worried about whether the SGC was going to be able to reactive the gate. But Teal'c had kept to himself for most of that week.

He thought about it. Truth was, he'd been alone with her before on so many missions he couldn't remember them all. But that was different – then, they were off world, and living their lives off world was private. Sure, nothing happened but he didn't have to watch his back every minute or pay attention to the politics or what someone was bound to suggest… badly… about a houseboat on Earth and a night alone together.

It was official - missions on Earth were a huge pain.

He gunned the boat again, irritable. He was not going to let any unfounded rumors get started and he'd squash the first person that made the suggestion. Carter was more important than that.

And why was that?

That was easy to answer. A woman in the military... yeah, sure. That was part of it but he was just lying to himself. Truth was he wanted her to be happy.

Great. Just great. He was certifiable.

And Carter... He had no idea what kind of mood Carter would be in when he got back or if she was talking to him or not. She'd been unusually erratic this entire trip. First, she was pissed, then she was happy and apologized for something that he still wasn't sure what it was, then she's pissed again, and then she's apparently happy with him.

Totally un-Carter like. Carter was calm and sensible and predictable on missions. And if he thought she was also stunningly beautiful and brilliant and amazing all the time, he was able to keep it to himself.

The fact was that, especially with him, Carter was impeccably professional.

Until this trip. Huh. She wasn't being… Carter. Like her comment about the towels... what was that about?

Any other woman, it would have been… flirting at the least and a possible come on at the most. He'd had his share of that stuff coming his way even when he'd been married to Sara. Carter would never... she'd just been deflecting. She'd been embarrassed. She definitely wasn't interested in him and he needed to be sure that he didn't cross the line.

Ah, jeez. He had to stop comparing Carter to anyone, Kalwalsky and women in the generic sense included. She was Carter. She was different. She was a great second, a good friend and an amazing person, brilliant, fascinating and difficult.

And he was in very serious trouble.

He sighed. Nothing new there.

He quit thinking about it and stared out at the view.

An hour later, he docked the speedboat with Carter's help at the back of the houseboat.

She pulled the rope taught as he climbed the ladder. "Did T and Daniel-?"

"Yeah, they're fine. Off into the wild blue….uhh…. probably red, Bluff. Anything from the site or the SGC?"

"No emissions. General Hammond is sending SG3. They should be here tomorrow morning with an expected ETA of 11 hundred. "

"He's sending in the Marines?" What was Hammond thinking?

She grinned. "Actually only half of SG3. Reynolds and Santos. Lee and Harris insisted on coming as well. Apparently, they threatened to come on their own on downtime if they weren't included."

"Ah." Well, that explained that. He'd send the Marines as well if two scientists were going to be let loose on Earth. He sighed, revising his earlier thought. The whole 'mission on Earth' thing wasn't just a huge pain; it totally sucked.

She smiled at him, and it nearly blew him away. Ok, so she was in a good mood. He could deal with that. "You missed lunch, sir. I made some sandwiches."

"You cooked?" He broke in, teasing her.

She stared him down in what was a classic 'don't mess with me' military expression that made him proud and slightly horrified at the same time.

"I am perfectly capable of putting meat on two slices of bread.

"Uhh.. sir."

He said seriously, "Of course you are, Major." And after a beat added, "Of course, I've had your MREs, so you have to understand my concern."

She shook her head, grinning, and wandered into the houseboat.


	14. Chapter 14

13.

Sam finished the last of her sandwich and took a sip of diet coke.

The Colonel seemed to be in a good mood again, which helped with her plan, although he had been quiet, for him.

She felt like she'd been given a third chance, and she was not going to miss yet another opportunity. Daniel and T were gone, their SGC backup wouldn't arrive until tomorrow morning, and, so far, the nothing was going on at the site. All in all, it meant she had some downtime with the Colonel. And what better way to spend the time than go fishing? She was not going to disappear into work again. Besides, there was nothing to do except wait.

"Sir, I was thinking…" She stopped and swallowed. This was going to be more difficult than she thought.

He grinned. "Really." He cocked his head. "You sure the ribs are getting better?"

"Yes, sir." Ah jeez. She really needed to get to the point.

He got up and started bussing the dishes. "Sam."

Her never called her Sam anymore. Not ever. It was always Carter. She waited.

He turned away and put the dishes in the sink, turning on the water to rinse them. "I'm sorry about this."

"What? About what?" There was suddenly a black pit in her stomach. Oh man, she hoped he didn't know what she thought - that he was an amazing man, fascinating and ...

"About this situation."

"I don't know what you mean, sir."

He continued. "A mission on Earth is different than out there." He glanced out the window of the boat. "I just mean…well…the two of us here alone, even though we were ordered to be here, could be cause for gossip because we're on Earth. I'll make sure that it's understood that this is just business as usual."

She stared at him. The thought hadn't even occurred to her. She finally commented, "Innuendo's pretty common in the military, sir. The gossip doesn't matter."

He looked grim. "It does to me. I know I don't say this very often, well, possibly never, but you're an excellent officer, Major. I won't let anything get in the way of your career."

Jeez, what did she say to that? She didn't even know how she felt about it. She felt a warm glow and slightly nauseated at the same time. So, he thought she was a good officer. Coming from him, she felt a surge of pride. The Colonel had really, really high standards. On the other hand, what else was he telling her? Was it an indirect way of turning her down? Had he figured out how she felt about him when she wasn't even sure what she felt? That would be horrible, embarrassing, and just really unspeakably not good. For anyone.

"Carter?" He paused, clearly concerned at her lack of response. "Look, I didn't mean that to be sexist or anything. I know you can take care of yourself and your career. But as your CO, I do have a say in things. I just wanted you to know I've got your back."

She had to say something or he was going to completely misunderstand. "Thank you, sir. Your opinion means a lot."

He looked tremendously relieved. "Okay then." He cleared his throat. "So, we need to monitor for emissions until SG3 relieves us. If you show me the process, we can -"

She was relieved herself that they were back on solid ground again and that he'd turned the topic to something she understood. "Actually, sir, we don't need to monitor it."

"We don't?" There was suspiciousness in his tone.

She grinned. "No. While you were gone, I programmed … well… anyway, the point is that the laptop is now automatically set to alert us to any activity and it's also hooked into the SGC monitoring equipment, so if they pick up something we don't, we'll know right away. So we don't really need to monitor anything, just keep the laptop nearby." She paused, apologetically. "We do need to stay on the boat."

He looked totally flummoxed, which she thought was really strange.

He swallowed. "Okay, so what … I mean, uhh… any thoughts on activities for the next 20 hours?" He shook his head. "I didn't mean that the way it sounded."

She grinned. He was totally flustered. It was really amusing, and would be even more amusing if she wasn't totally flustered herself. She said, sympathetically, "I know what you meant, sir.

"There's nothing we can research related to the mission until we check out Butler Wash and Daniel and T get back. So…"

"So?"

She swallowed. OK, time to get to the point. "You could teach me to fish."

"What?" He looked stunned.

She hurried on. "I mean, it's not really necessary or anything. I'd understand if you're not interested in… well… there's only a few more hours of light, and I know you like to fish alone at your cabin. I just-"

He broke in. "Carter, it's fine." He swallowed. "In fact, it's a great idea. I – uhh. Yeah. I mean I brought all the fishing gear, so why not use it? Nothing wrong with that, is there?"

She thought that his last comment was directed more at himself than at her, but she answered anyway, grinning. "Not that I can see, sir. So?"

He rubbed his hands through his hair, staring at her. "Yeah, sure. Let's go fishing."

Three hours later, the data was in. She loved fishing. Loved it. It was absolutely fabulous. Well, she backtracked on that. She didn't really care for actually doing it herself, but she loved… ah, jeez… wrong word… liked the effect it had on the Colonel.

He was relaxed in a way she'd never seen him before; cheerful and helpful, teaching her technique, filling the time with quiet, comfortable contemplation of the wilderness around them and then really bad jokes.

And his hands… she could watch his hands for hours and never get bored; when he was carefully setting up the rods and reels, casting, when his hands were on hers explaining technique.

OK, that was a thought best left alone or, she admitted to herself, to be savored later.

But the way he relaxed was mesmerizing. She'd never been able to live in the moment the way he could, the way he was showing her how to live today. She always thought ahead, planning her next move, the next challenge. He was able to stop and appreciate the moment.

Like now. His feet up on the bannister, his head back with his sunglasses covering his eyes, he really wasn't fishing per se, although his rod was up and his line in the water. He was completely open in a way physically she'd never seen on missions. There he was careful and tightly controlled, powerful and determined. Decisive. Here, today, he was … ah, jeez, she'd never really understood **how** attractive he was until she'd seen him so approachable and accessible.

"Carter, look." He glanced at her and took off his sunglasses and pointed.

The sun was setting on the rocks, creating an orange glow that stunned her, an exact reflection in the now black shadowed water below. She blushed and wondered if he knew that she'd been staring at him and not the scene.

She responded quickly. "It's amazing."

He grinned back at her. "Yeah, it is. And so are you."

She stared at him, shocked. He rubbed his hands on his eyes and then through his hair. "Sorry. I just meant that I never thought you'd like fishing. It's not really your style."

She risked the truth. "It is now, with the right company."

His expression was unreadable.

She broke in. "I just meant that …well… it's been fun to explore something different. Thank you."

He said nothing, staring at her. She was afraid that she'd gone over the line, caused him concern. But he finally just commented, "You're welcome," and looked out at the sun slowly setting again, saying nothing more.

She watched it slowly set as well, silent herself.

The sunset finally gone, and the starlight just beginning, the Colonel got up and started cleaning up his fishing gear.

"So, what's for dinner, Carter?"

As a joke it wasn't much, but he was trying.

She grinned, following his lead. "I made lunch. Dinner's on you. There must be something left from that huge pile of stuff you bought."

"Carter, sandwiches do not count as cooking."

She shrugged. "They do in my life."

He grinned. "Must be a tough CO you have there."

"You have no idea."

He raised his eyebrows. "Really."

She stood up, helping him with the gear. "Oh yeah. Lousy hours, pay's not great, and he expects me to save the world on a regular basis."

He grinned. "So a real bastard, huh?"

She stared at him, smiling. "No. Not at all."

He blew out a breath, silent. She couldn't decipher what it was she saw in his eyes.

"Okay, so as the not real bastard but difficult CO, I think ordering… suggesting… that a compromise for dinner is in order. I'll make the last of the steaks and some potatoes on the grill, because I'll be damned if Reynolds gets all of them, and you can make some of that green stuff you like so much."

She cocked her head. "It's called a salad."

He smiled. "Yeah, that."

"Sounds like a deal."

sjsjsjs

It was a perfect night. Dinner had been under the stars on the upper deck, the moonlight sufficient to see without using the invasive lights of the deck. They'd talked; not about missions or work – just exploring a bit, not too much, about where they'd been stationed, who they knew in common. It was great.

But it was getting late. The Colonel took a last sip of his beer, and stared down at her laptop, next to her.

"So…anything?"

She shrugged, acknowledging the end of the evening, but reluctant to give it up. She got back to the point. It was a mission after all.

"No. I think we're fine for now."

His expression was unreadable. "Yes, we are."

She swallowed, suddenly unable to say anything.

He picked up some of the dishes and headed into the main cabin. "So, Carter, interested in a game of chess?"

She cocked her head and then grinned; so maybe there could be more to the evening than she thought. "You're on."

Sam relaxed against the pillows on the couch. Her bruises were bad, but healing quickly, and although the game was interesting, she was not at her best. She was going to loose, anyone with half a brain could see that. The Colonel was a killer strategist.

It had been a wonderful day. She put her ankle up on the couch and smiled at him.

"Your game. I concede."

He looked up from the chess board, surprised.

"Really?"

"Yeah. "

She sipped the last of her beer and settled back. "Is this what you do in Minnesota?

"Fishing, chess…"

He started putting the chess pieces away. "Well, yeah, but there I just normally play with myself."

She grinned.

He looked up at her and then cocked his head, embarrassed, realizing what he'd said. He raised his eyes to the ceiling. "Get your mind out of … wherever, Major."

She laughed. "Yes, sir."

He swallowed. "I didn't mean that the way it sounded."

She grinned. "I know."

She got up from the couch and walked over to him. It was an insane thing to do, but what the hell. She leaned over and kissed his cheek. It was brief, and minor and no one could possibly read anything into it- she hoped.

The Colonel's look was unfathomable, his eyes dark.

She decided to risk the truth. "Thank you for the day. If it was anything like being at your cabin, I'm sorry I missed the opportunity."

"Maybe sometime, Sam." He looked away, out at the night.

She looked away herself, recognizing that it was a question they may not ever answer.

She repeated the phrase. "Maybe".

She swallowed and turned away, turning back to the practical. "I have the laptop, so if anything comes over the wires, so to speak, I'll let you know. Otherwise, I think we can both get a decent night's sleep."

He turned, and glanced her way, acknowledging the change in topic.

"Good to know, but leave it with me. I'll take watch." She was going to argue, but he stared at her knowingly. "We've got a ten click hike on our hands tomorrow, and your ankle needs the rest."

She grimaced. He was right about the ankle, and she felt some satisfaction in the idea that this time she was going to be on the mission tomorrow.

She gave him the laptop and started to turn away towards the bedrooms, but he stopped her by standing and touching her arm.

"You really liked fishing?"

She smiled at him. " You betcha. It was the best."

He expression was unreadable. She decided to leave with her dignity and sanity still intact. But she'd be damned if she called him 'sir' this time. They were on Earth. She could risk it.

"Sleep well, Jack. The monitor will wake you if there's any problems. Good night."

She left the Colonel in the living area and headed off towards the shower, thinking about the night.

sjsjsjsjsj

She was drying her hair when she overhead the Colonel talking to someone.

"Damn it, Daniel, I told you to meet us at the Butler Wash site. That's an order."

A pause.

"Put Teal'c on." Another much longer pause. "He did what?" The Colonel sighed, clearly exasperated. "Of course he did." A pause. "Yeah, right, sure he was."

There was silence. The Colonel had clearly cut the conversation.

She wandered into the living space, concerned, but not wanting to invade. "Is everything all right?"

The Colonel rubbed his eyes and then glanced at her, his expression closed down. "Apparently, because he's on Earth, Daniel's forgotten there's a chain of command and thinks he can do whatever he damn well pleases."

"So… business as usual."

She risked the joke, wanting to break his mood. They'd had a great night and she didn't want to lose the feeling of warmth.

He looked ready to grump at her, and then backed down.

"Indeed." He raised an eyebrow, imitating Teal'c. "And Teal'c agrees with you, by the way. Also told me that he couldn't stop him either."

"What's Daniel doing?"

"He's headed back to the SGC to speed up the translation. The meeting with Saunders was a bust, no, worse than a bust. Daniel thinks that the man has translated the tape and that whatever was on it is even more important now that someone else knows the contents." He paused. "I told him to leave it, that he and Teal'c were needed at Butler ignored me."

She grimaced.

He sighed, agreeing with her. "Yeah. I hate missions on Earth."


	15. Chapter 15

Anasazi 15

Jack grimaced, waiting impatiently on the back of the houseboat, coffee in hand. It was nearly 10. Where was Reynolds, anyway? The water was calm, the day clear. It was cold, but not impossible.

Then he saw action in the distance on the lake.

Finally.

He watched with some satisfaction as the speedboat that had to be Reynolds and company headed towards the mouth of the Escalante drainage and the houseboat.

He grabbed the line as Reynolds docked the second speedboat to the houseboat. And then did a double take. He stared at Reynolds, surprised. He looked as frazzled as Jack had ever seen him. Reynolds was cool under fire and as laid back as it got, for a Marine.

Today, he looked harassed.

"Jim." Jack grabbed the man's arm and pulled him into the boat, Jemez following.

"Jack."

Harris interrupted. "Major, this equipment is quite fragile. We need to get it onboard at once."

Reynolds bit back something, Jack couldn't tell what, but finally said, mildly, "I know that, Doctor. You've reminded me repeatedly for the last six hours."

"Alright, then." Harris carefully deposited a metal case in Reynolds' hands. Jack grabbed it from Reynolds and took it into the boat, going back for yet another load.

Reynolds, Jemez and he worked in silence as they unloaded the boat. Finished, the two scientists came aboard, discussing something, Jack wasn't really sure what and frankly didn't want to know, in tandem.

Lee glanced at the interior of the houseboat. "Where is Major Carter?"

Jack gestured towards the back. "Below. She's got a command center set up down there. She's pulling her own equipment together."

"Ah. Excellent." Lee and Harris headed determinedly to the back of the boat. Reynolds gestured for Jemez to follow. The man nearly rolled his eyes, but did as he was ordered.

Reynolds glared at him. " So, Jack."

"I know. I'm sorry."

"You owe me, big time, and that's even after I owe you for saving my butt on P3X847."

He swallowed. "I know, but it's really not my fault."

Jim grimaced. "Carter…"

Jack didn't need the rest of that sentence. Carter was his responsibility, and so the mission really was on him.

He offered up the best he had. "I'm leaving the fishing gear."

Jim stared at him as if he'd lost his mind.

He shrugged. "Good cover."

"Uhuh."

Jack tried again. "There are still some steaks. And there's beer."

At that, Reynolds looked interested, which was a testament to how badly he was rattled. The man didn't drink. He sighed wistfully, "I'd prefer facing a squadron of Jaffa."

Jack really couldn't disagree.

They could hear Lee, Harris and Carter deep in conversation all the way from the far back of the boat. Reynolds looked slightly panicked.

Jack cocked his head sympathetically. He wouldn't want to be in Jim's shoes. At least he had some control, not much, but some, over his own scientists and Carter was AF after all.

"I don't know how you do it, Jack. Jackson, Carter…"

Jack bristled, ready to defend his team, but realized with one look at Jim that the man was honestly worried and asking for help.

"Make a threat assessment, listen, adjust if necessary, and then watch their backs. And pull them out of the range of fire when needed. Or insist on scrubbing the mission and keep them confined if you can. With your group, I'd confine them first. You have that authority, even on Earth."

Jim sighed. "Thanks." He looked back at Jack, away from the view of the canyon.

"Jackson and Teal'c showed up at the SGC an hour before we left, somewhere around 0400. Teal'c told me they'd driven through the night to get there. Jackson's evidently deep in translations."

He paused. "I thought all of SG1 was headed to Butler Wash."

Jack grimaced and decided Reynolds deserved the truth. "So did I."

He stopped, thinking, listening to the conversation below deck. He gestured in that direction.

"Scientists. Scientific license. Earth. Missions are… different here. There's freedom of choice and … all that. That's why we're in the game - to protect those choices. Jackson's a civilian and although he could, probably should, be fired, he has rights here.

"Hammond could kick him out of the SGC, but there's nothing more we can do on Earth besides permanently confine him as a threat to national security. And that's the last thing Daniel is trying to do."

He glanced at Reynolds. "Of course, it is something you could use with your duo if they get out of hand."

Jim looked a lot more cheerful at that. "So, threat assessment, try to understand what the hell they're talking about, watch their backs and save their assets. Worst case, get them out of the range of fire (something Jack understood Jim felt very comfortable with) and then threaten confinement if they get uppity. Got it."

Jack grinned. "Well, it might work."

Jim stared at him, and then grinned as well. He looked toward the interior of the boat, now interested. "Did you say there were steaks?"

"Yeah."

Jim walked into the interior and smiled. "Nice digs, Jack. I like your style."

Jack swallowed. "Uhh, yeah. Jim, about the houseboat…"

Reynolds cocked his head, grinning. "About the only thing that makes this palatable. Good idea of yours. Hammond oked our appropriation of it for as long as necessary."

"Ah."

Reynolds looked at him, considering. "So, it's just you and the Major heading to Butler Wash."

"Hammond wants the mission under the radar more now than ever."

"Yeah, he mentioned that."

"Look, Jim…"

Reynolds interrupted. "Nothing unusual in two members of a team heading out to complete a mission when the other members are …delayed. At least it is off world. No reason it should be different here on Earth, no matter what might be said by those who haven't served."

Jack said nothing, not sure what to say. It was clear Reynolds wasn't finished.

"We've got Carter's back, Jack. Yours too. Nothing will come of it. I'll make sure of that."

"I - uhh, thanks."

Jim grinned. "That's two you owe me."

"Got it." Suddenly, Jack felt nervous about Reynold's expression. He waited for the punch line. It wasn't long in coming.

"There's always babysitting. For some reason, this mission brings that to mind." Jim smiled ironically. Jack remembered that the man had two children under two with another on the way.

"Dixon mentioned you were excellent. Even gave you a recommendation."

Jack groaned. Dixon had four hellions who were actually pretty amusing. And yeah, he'd agreed to watch them occasionally after Dixon had pulled SG1 out of a really dicey situation on P3C949, but it just wasn't good for his well-practiced bad ass Colonel reputation if he was getting known as the resident available babysitter of the SGC. No matter how much he liked kids.

"Dixon pulled our assets out of a firefight. And his are all over 6. They walk; they talk. Not a chance in hell with your brood, seeing as they're both under two. But at 16 I'll teach them to drive if you want."

Jim sighed. "Yeah, thought you'd say that." He paused, thinking, "Maybe Carter…"

Jack interrupted. "Don't even go there. You'd -" He stopped suddenly when he heard a crash followed by loud, annoyed voices, with Carter's calm tones trying to mitigate the situation. He grinned. "Sounds like your geeks." He gestured Jim toward the back of the boat. "Scientist sitting time."

Jim stared at him glumly, sighed and led the way.

Sjsjsjsj

Jack hammered the speedboat through Powell for the third time. Bullfrog Marina was pretty much as he'd left it yesterday when he'd dropped off Daniel and Teal'c, except that Tom was front and center, clearly full of questions.

He docked the speedboat and gestured to Carter to unload the gear into the truck.

"Tom."

"Colonel O'Neill."

O - kay, cover blown. He took off his sunglasses and stared the man down.

Tom was clearly intrigued and excited. Bad combination. Jack sighed, and waited.

"So, your Command, a General Hammond, asked to requisition the boat. How long do you think that will be?"

"As long as they need it."

Tom stared at him. "What's going on?"

Jack was sure that missions on Earth were the worst. He took it back. Missions on Earth in the US were the absolute worse. He really needed Daniel, damn the man for abandoning him. Or he should never have let Carter take care of the equipment. Then she could have handled this instead.

"Classified."

At Tom's stare of annoyance, he added, "There's no danger to you or your boat. It's a scientific expedition. That's all I can say."

Tom grinned. "So, you guys are finally taking the ghosts of Glen Canyon seriously?"

Jack stared at him. "What ghosts?"

Tom rolled his eyes. "Sure, Colonel. Like you don't know. I got it. Classified."

"What ghosts?"

Tom bent down, double-checking the knot that secured the speedboat to the dock. "Yeah, I got it. Need to know." He looked up at Jack and grinned. "I've watched a lot of JAG, you know, so I am informed."

"Right." Jack sighed. He really needed to hear what the man had to say. "So… the ghosts."

Tom stood and stared back at him, enjoying the conversation. "Okay, so I think this is the part where you're interrogating the locals. And I'm local. Got it."

"What about the ghosts?"

Tom grinned. "Man, you really are good at what you do. I mean that glare is really stellar. Beats the crap out of t.v. You are *the* man."

Jack sighed and decided to go with the flow and act like an idiot. "If I have to say this again, I'm going to have to shoot you. What ghosts?"

Tom looked suitably impressed. "Cool. Okay, so you want my opinion. I got it."

He shrugged, thinking. "There've been people in the canyon at least 2000 years, so a lot of ghosts, the Anasazi, Freemont peoples, the Spanish priests, the Mormon explorers, cattlemen, prospectors, poets. Lots of stories about all of them showing up long after they were supposed to be gone."

The Colonel grimaced. "I know about Ruess."

Tom grinned. "Yeah, there are sightings of him throughout the area pretty regularly. And, of course the Navajos think the ruins are haunted. Some folks say that Cass Hite still haunts the area where he prospected, and others claim they've seen the Wetherills on occasion. And then there's Harry Comstock's story about the green lights last winter, but a lot of people think that he was just following up on Fred's sighting of them the year before at the same time, trying to make himself important."

"What green lights?"

Tom bent down, making sure the speedboat was secure to the dock. "Well, Fred was searching for some stray cattle two years ago on the mesa above Davis Gulch." He looked up, thinking. "I think it was right before the holidays - yeah, it was. There was snow predicted and one of his bulls had gone missing. Anyway, when he looked down into the Gulch, he claimed the entire lake was shimmering; there was light shining from below the water, a green glow covering the area. Freaked him out, so he got the hell out."

He paused. "Then, of course, Harry claimed the same thing the next year." He shook his head. "Way too much bad blood between them, if you ask me."

Jack cocked his head. "Yeah, sounds unlikely. Any other stories of green lights?"

"Not that I know of."

Jack put his sunglasses back on and shrugged. "Well, there you go." He looked toward Carter and the truck. She was headed back towards him. When Tom stood up, he shook the man's hand. "Thanks, Tom. And the rest of team out on the lake will take care of your boat. Not to worry."

"Thanks, Colonel."

Jack walked towards Carter, meeting her halfway between the dock and the truck. She smiled. "Everything ok?"

"Yeah. He knows we're Air Force, but thinks it's a science expedition. Either that, or that we're hunting ghosts."

Carter did a double take, and then grinned. "Close enough, sir."

"Yeah."

Her curiosity got the better of her. "Ghosts?"

He grimaced. "Apparently lots of sighting around here. But he also claims that the locals have seen a green glow from below the waters of Davis Gulch for the last two years around the holidays."

"Not now?"

"No."

"I - huh."

"What?"

"December 21 is the Winter Solstice. Daniel did say that the Anasazi placed a lot of importance on the astronomical calendar."

Jack sighed. "Okay, so whatever it is playing games is doing it on a regular basis."

"At least recently. We don't know how long it's been going on, or what activated the signals to begin with or even if they'll keep it up."

"Yeah." He opened the passenger door to the truck and threw her the keys. "Have at it, Carter. Looks like the entrance to Butler Wash is about two and a half, maybe three, hours away, north on 276 and then east on 95."

She grinned. "You're letting me drive your truck?"

He shrugged and then climbed in, put his head against the headrest, and closed his eyes.

"Did you get any sleep last night, sir?" Her tone was concerned.

"Some." Fact was, he hadn't gotten any. He'd spent the first half of the night pissed at Daniel and the second half convinced that he was way over his head where his Second was concerned. The day had been … really fine. He knew he needed to pull back; he just couldn't seem to do it. And then he'd been concerned about what Reynolds would think, needlessly as it turned out, and convinced that if he let himself sleep, he'd miss the laptop's alert and all hell would break loose, which it hadn't. So, a pointless night. It was impossible to stop Daniel when he was on a roll without restraining him, he couldn't seem to do anything about Carter, he didn't need to do anything about Reynolds, and the entities had shut up for the time being.

"I'll wake you when we get there, Colonel. Get some sleep."

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	16. Chapter 16

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A/N. This is accurate southwestern US vistas, although I've taken some liberties with specific hikes ,changing locations a bit and adding some landscape from others in order to make the story a tad more dramatic in the next chapters.

Happy holidays to all!

Thanks for the reviews and reading.

Sam938

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Jack stirred, the truck's lack of motion waking him instantly. He pulled his sunglasses away from his eyes and stared out at the scenery. A white arch, nearly 200 feet across that spanned a canyon nearly a hundred foot below dominated the view, huge red buttes serving as a backdrop behind.

He rubbed his eyes. "Where are we?"

"Natural Bridges National Monument, sir. Sorry to wake you. I needed a break, and this looked like as good a place as any. Better. I've always wanted to see this, although I'd really love to see it at night."

"Why?"

"The sky here is a Class 2 on the Bortle Dark-Sky Scale."

"Uhuh."

She grinned. "Sorry, sir. It's the darkest sky ever assessed in the U.S. Understandable, considering the country we traveled through to get here. There's nothing for hundreds of miles around us. There were literally no structures to be seen the whole time you were asleep."

She glanced around her. "It's amazing here."

"Yeah, it is." He got out of the truck and stretched, staring at the view.

She got out as well. "ETA's about an hour to the where we leave the truck, sir."

"And that means?"

"We left the Henries about an hour ago." She pointed to the mountains barely visible to the west.

"Grand Gulch is to the south. Abajo Mountains to the north. We need to finish crossing Cedar Mesa and then climb Comb Ridge. The head of Butler Wash is in the Cheese and Raisins area on the other side of the Ridge. We can head in there, and drop off the truck. It's ten clicks in the canyon as the crow flies after that. Probably longer as we'll have to follow a smaller wash whose name I don't know and then drop into Butler somehow where they connect."

"Terrific."

"It's the easiest way in from the topos."

She poured some coffee from a thermos and handed it to him. He nodded his thanks and then headed to the back of the truck, sorting through the equipment.

"What are you looking for?"

"Rechecking the climbing gear." He pointed to the canyon view in front of them. "The Monument's relatively civilized, Carter. The rest of this country is completely wild. I'd rather not free climb with packs unless absolutely necessary."

She took a sip of coffee, and nodded her head, acknowledging the point. "So, you want to drive, sir?"

"You tired?"

She smiled. "Not at all."

"Then let's head out."

She grinned and started up the truck.

Jack scanned the countryside carefully as Carter drove them over Cedar Mesa. It was appropriately named. The land was deceptively flat with a huge cedar forest covering the mesa for miles, as far as the eye could see. But land was cut with cracks, canyons hundreds feet below, extending for miles, their sides sheer and unrelenting, denying access.

"Wow."

Jack watched, amused, as they approached Comb Ridge and Carter took in the engineering that had been necessary to conquer it. It was a monocline, a sheer sandstone block that extended for 40 miles in Utah alone and rose 800 feet above the mesa. There was nothing like it. It was a complete anomaly. He knew it from his time at White Sands, when he'd done a lot of traveling in the Four Corners, and so knew what the geology in this country was like, but Carter had never seen it before.

"Yeah. It's ok."

She glanced at him like he was out of his mind, and then caught herself and said nothing.

He grinned.

Once over the pass, Carter commented, "It's about another five miles or so to the turn off, sir, to the northwest. The turnoff might not be much of a road, in fact, probably nothing. We have to head into Cottonwood Canyon and then into the Cheese are Raisins area."

"What's the deal with the name?"

She glanced at him and smiled. "I have no idea. Maybe someone's really, really awful idea of a sandwich?"

"Like Elvis' peanut butter and bananas?"

She looked surprised.

"Before your time, Carter."

She grinned. "Actually not, sir. And I like peanut butter and bananas."

Huh. Well, that was a thought that he could do without. He stared out at the vista. "Turn on the left approaching."

They headed into Cottonwood Canyon, on a very old but still paved road for about a mile, and then Carter turned to the west on a questionable dirt road, even for his truck. As she continued to navigate what was clearly a track, and a bad track at best with canyon cracks on all sides. Mud from the latest rainstorms throughout the area added to the challenge, making traction difficult. He thanked the stars that he'd insisted on his truck and four-wheel drive.

He considered insisting that he drive and then rethought the idea. It was Carter at the wheel. She'd handle it. He glanced at her, and saw her smile as she finished a particularly tricky maneuver.

He put his shades on his eyes, and leaned back. It was Earth, after all. She'd pulled his ass out of far more tough situations than a dicey canyon road on Earth. Many times; in fact too many. Besides, she was enjoying it.

He grinned to himself, and let her deal.

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Sam parked the truck off the track in a sandbar underneath some cedars, still grinning at the drive. It had been fun. "We're here, sir."

"Great." The Colonel's tone was unmistakably his usual cynicism. He opened his eyes, got out of the truck, stretched, and looked around him. "We're in the middle of nowhere, Carter. Literally." He glanced at the cliff next to the truck. "Still don't see it."

"What?"

"Cheese and raisins."

"The yellowish sandstone layers *are* moddled with round dark red rocks, sir. Sort of.. raisin-y. And cheesy."

"Definitely cheesy."

"Actually, the strata are called-"

"Ack. Carter. Enough. Cheese and raisons is fine. Has a ring to it."

She smirked, and grabbed her pack out of back of the truck, rechecking the contents and then started to attach the tent to the back of her pack.

"Leave it." She looked back over to him, questioning.

"We don't need the extra weight. There are plenty of alcoves in the canyons."

"Gets cold at night."

"We'll deal."

She checked her watch. "It's 1600 now. The earliest ETA at the site by my calculations would be 1830, and that's if it's only 10 clicks in, which is more than unlikely in this terrain, and assuming we can cover four clicks an hour, also unlikely. Sun goes down at 1800 this time of year. The last part of the hike will be in the shadows. It could be as late as 1930 before we reach the site."

The Colonel shrugged. "Sleeping bags will be enough. Better to have the water, ropes, all your tech and… MRE's." He grimaced at the last and then threw her two two-gallon jugs of water. "Take those." He added two to his own pack as well.

"What's the plan, sir?"

He finished putting on his gear. "Hike in, find the site. I'll recon and if all checks out you can investigate stuff. The rest is up to the wackos running this show."

She swallowed back her annoyance. He had a point in leaving her outside the cave. The entities had reacted badly to her presence last time, and due to Daniel and Teal'c's desertion, they had no backup. She needed to stay back to keep him safe, and to be able to act if anything did happen. "Understood."

He looked at her, surprised. "No argument?"

"None, sir."

He glanced at her suspiciously and then shook his head as if to clear it. He shrugged his pack to a more comfortable position. "O - kay. Lead the way, Major."

She grinned and slid down a 50 foot-high bench of sand; the easy entrance into the side canyon that would lead them to Butler. The Colonel raised his eyebrows ironically.

"Fun."

He followed her in.

Two and a half hours later, she recognized that her backup estimate of the amount of time it would take to get to the site was more accurate than her first. The country was wild and unrelenting. Sure, she'd been in a lot of *really* wild, crazed country off world, but this was Earth; it was home. She'd somehow managed to let her guard down by that deceptively simple thought when making her initial calculations.

The Colonel didn't seem bothered by it. If anything, he appeared to be enjoying the trek. He smiled at her, and then gestured to take break. She sat down next to him, her back against a boulder, and grinned back at him as he handed her an energy bar and some water.

"Thanks."

"No problem." He leaned back against a second boulder hidden in the shadows and took a bite of his own food. "Any idea where we are?"

She swallowed and took a drink. "Actually, we're pretty close, sir. But the canyon -"

"Yeah, meanders, doesn't it."

Meander was one word for it, she supposed. Tortuous and winding were others.

The trek had started gently, the mesa top covered with juniper, pinyon pine and gamble oak. The cliffs rose gradually on either side of the arroyo as the Colonel and she headed down canyon, the hard sandstone wash scarred with pot holes now filled with water from storm that had swept through while they were at Powell.

Rocks, fallen cedar trees and branches, swept along with the sharp currents from hundreds of years of deluges, clogged choke points in the arroyo. They'd hiked around some and climbed others. Then the side canyon they'd started in had dead-ended with a huge run off, merging with Butler, 200 feet below.

She'd been sure they were going to need ropes to rappel, but then had noticed the ridge. Barely five foot across, two hundred foot above Butler Wash, it paralleled the canyon floor below it. They backtracked on it until they were able to scramble down the slickrock to Butler.

The canyon was a maze of red rock enclaves, sometimes miles in length, twisting in all directions. After a while, the wash opened up, a quarter mile across, with cottonwoods, golden in their fall glory; the grasses on the lower levels ignoring the orange- brown sand beneath them that should make survival impossible.

Water still gurgled through the wash, leaving small pools in shady spots and quickly dissipating in the high desert dryness in others.

As they moved towards the head of Butler, the canyon closed in again, only twenty or thirty feet across at the bottom, but the sides nearly two, then three, then four hundred feet above them.

She could see ledges higher up, and occasionally sited a ruin like the one they'd seen at Powell, most nearly invisible due to the Anasazi's long ago careful replication of the rock outcroppings on which they stood. The engineering was impeccable. The ruins were carefully protected and impossible to reach without ladders or rope.

They were fortresses in the wilderness.

She stared carefully at one. There. She could see that there were steps picked out of the vertical rock; difficult, if not impossible, free climbing. And there were petrogylphs on the sheer cliff walls nearby. Clearly, someone was telling a tale of the ruin.

She looked away and focused on the route in front of her, carefully making her way though the wash. The rabbit brush was in bloom, something she recognized from Colorado, its top a bright golden hue, spectacular when combined with purple asters, and red pestemon; red gamble oaks and then the green of cedar and pinyon pines making up the mix.

She looked above again, the wind picking up, and watched as clouds flew across the sky.

"God, it's beautiful."

"Yes, it is."

There was something in the Colonel's tone that she couldn't quite place. She stared at him curiously. He was just too assured, calm.

"You've been in this country before, haven't you, sir."

He shrugged. "I told you I was stationed in White Sands."

"That's 500 miles away."

"So, I took an occasional detour."

It suddenly clicked; the desert climate, the wilderness, his special ops background, his time in the Middle East. "You did survival training out here."

He shrugged again, not saying anything.

She watched the sun as it set quickly over the canyon walls, a fire red orange ball, followed by bright gold, oranges and purples reflected in the clouds that she would not have believed were natural colors if she hadn't seen it herself.

The Colonel broke the silence. "We need to head out, Carter. Sun goes down fast here, and as far as I can figure we're about a half hour from the site of your emissions."

He looked at the sky. "Moonlight should be adequate, though. We'll be able to see some. We'll reconnoiter a possible camp in an alcove nearby and then head to your emission site, which has got to be in yet another cave."

He glanced around at the sheer canyon walls, bare of life except at the mesa tops or on ledges carved out of the rock or gullies formed by avalanches, towering above them. "My guess is probably two- three hundred feet up. That's the usual place for ruins in this country."

"You *did* train here. Why didn't you tell me, sir?" She wished he'd talk to her.

He shrugged, apologetically. "It was a long time ago, Sam. I didn't think I'd remember. But being here, yeah, it comes back. It always does."

She didn't know what to say to that. The use of her name, his comment, and the resignation in his tone were all completely out of the norm for a mission.

He stood up and put out his hand to help her up. She grabbed his, confused. He never did that.

He grimaced, noting her confusion. "Just worried about the ankle."

"It's alright, sir. I'm fine."

"Let's finish this."


	17. Chapter 17

A/N. Thanks for the comments! and my apologies for the delay on this chapter. I've been traveling; in fact, will be for the next month, but I plan to keep editing the story, much of which is done.

This is for Kevin who asked for the latest.

Thanks to NiciMac for her help with this chapter, and the whole tale for that matter.

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A half an hour later, the Colonel found an alcove on a ledge a hundred feet above the wash that he was happy with as a fall back. After inspecting the cave, and leaving most of their pack's contents and the water, but retaining the climbing gear and weapons, he gestured and they headed back down to the wash and towards the GPS coordinates of the emissions.

She couldn't shake a sense of foreboding, of impending danger, yet again, as they headed toward the emissions site. She wished he'd decided to wait until morning, but that was just avoiding the inevitable. They needed to complete the trek; complete this part of the mission as soon as possible.

It was twilight now, but the Colonel had been right; there was enough moonlight to see, barely. She shivered against the sudden cold, as the darkness encased the canyon, bringing with it the chill of desert evenings in late fall. The air was crisp, suddenly cold. She could see her breath in the moonlight and now the starlight.

The silence settled around them as they headed through the wash, their footfalls the only sound. She picked a trail through the rocks and iced over pools, over dry fall and boulders, following the meandering canyon bottom on its path. There was no one. Nothing. No desert animals around. They were alone in two hundred miles of wilderness.

She kept focus on the GPS, barely able to see it in the fading light. Finally, they were there. She grabbed the Colonel's arm, unable to break the silence of the canyon when they reached the coordinates.

He put his hand on hers, still holding his arm, and looked down at the connection. Then he stared at the wall in front of them and raised his eyebrows.

He turned back to her. "Really?"

She shook her head in the affirmative.

"I knew this was going to be fun."

He grimaced, looked up at the cliff again and then released her. He began to climb, his boots keeping careful purchase on the angled slickrock.

She followed, watching her steps, making sure to follow the steep, almost vertical path he'd identified, patterns in the rock face, the strata changes creating miniature ledges. The slickrock was treacherous, slippery in places and sheer in others. There was nothing to hold onto, nothing to help keep balance. The Colonel switch-backed and forth, picking out the least dangerous angles as they climbed.

Finally, 150 feet up they reached a ledge of sorts, an enclave in the sandstone. Bushes hung perilously onto the outcropping, creating an oasis in the dark and the desert. A small cedar was struggling for life, its roots firmly dug into the stone, creating cracks in the ledge. Its only soil the sand and debris from 500 feet above on the mesa when washed down in rain or snow for food. Bushes grew along side the cedar, creating a hiding spot of sorts, a safe space.

The Colonel gestured for her to stop.

She sat down, breathing heavily, and looked down into the canyon and at the path they'd taken to reach the ledge. If she hadn't known they'd just scaled it, she would never believe it was possible.

And then she looked up.

There was no way up without climbing. Ropes most likely, but free climbing if they could manage it. And they had to go up, unless she was wrong about the coordinates.

She checked again. She was sure. The GPS coordinates were correct, they were in the right place, but this alcove wasn't the site. It had to be higher up. They had to climb.

This time finding the location of the emissions wasn't about depth, and going down; it was about scaling up the walls of an unrelenting, sheer canyon wall towering above them.

She swallowed, and finally commented on the obvious. "It's not here. It must be higher up."

The Colonel shrugged, calmly, took a drink and then handed her his liquid, staring at the shadows, the shapes of the night.

"Yeah, I figured. Should be an interesting climb." He stood up, and then looked down at her. He started to gesture a hand to get her up, but pulled back almost immediately, his hand to his side.

"Ready, Major?"

He looked out at the sky, the stars and moonlight, clearly assessing whether there was enough light needed for the climb.

She grimaced, accepting the inevitable. Of course they'd do it. The climb would be difficult and dangerous, especially at night, but it could be done - if they were really careful. If they'd been off world, she wouldn't even have considered that she had a choice. It was an easy answer to the Colonel's question there. She'd be ready.

On Earth- she stopped the thought. It didn't matter. Earth was the same as off world. She had to remember that. They were on a mission, no matter what world. And it was literally her mission this time, her choice, her recommendations had taken them here.

And she knew she was right; they needed to see this through. But she couldn't shake …

"Carter? Are you ready?"

The Colonel looked back at her in concern at her lack of answer. She got a grip, shook her head in the affirmative, and then knelt, pulling out the necessary climbing gear from her pack.

She stood, starting to put her backpack back on, and then stopped suddenly, staring at the far back of the ledge.

There was a glint of light, like moonlight shining on metal. She grabbed her flashlight and shone the light on the back of the ledge.

"Oh god..."

"What?"

The Colonel was next to her in an instant, his weapon pointed in the direction of her gaze.

Then he saw it too.

He focused in all directions, turning, weapon pointed. Finally seeing nothing threatening and convinced of their safety, he stood up and walked over to the body.

She was a second behind him. She'd seen corpses, even been responsible for their deaths, but this was unlike anything she'd seen before. The scavengers had gouged out the eyes and tore into the stomach. Instead of bloat, the corpse was mummified, a shell of a human, desiccated by the dry heat of the desert, the lack of humidity.

She swallowed back bile and then bent over the body along with him, examining the remains, her EMT training kicking in. "Skull's bashed in, and his… I think it's a he… his legs and arms are broken."

The Colonel checked for identification, turning over the body. She glanced at his expression, which was at its stoic best; his jaw was firm, his eyes black, his hands steady as he examined the remains.

"Nothing here."

He stared at the corpse, his hand rubbing against his leg. "Clearly been here a while."

She saw another flash of light, and then understood. The light she'd seen initially, and now, was the moonlight shining on the silver belt buckle still attached to the body.

She turned away, looking at anything besides the death beside them, looking for an answer to how the man had died. She scoped the scene and then saw something on the rock wall toward the west.

At the far edge she could see ropes, still dangling, swaying in the wind.

"There. Ropes. He must have tried to climb up and then fallen. He must have managed to crawl this far before he died."

"Not likely." The Colonel's tone was hard, cold, and ice calm.

She turned back to the Colonel, who was still examining the body. "What?"

He glanced at her, then back to the body. "The head wound is a killing blow. The rest… someone really didn't like him."

He shook his head, and then stood up and walked to the ropes she'd identified, assessing them by pulling, then leaning his full weight onto them.

"They're secure. We can use them for purchase."

He stared at the side of the cliff they had to climb, next to where the ropes were. "Daniel's…uhh… Moki steps are along the side - straight up."

He pulled out his flashlight so she could see them; they were slight indentations carved into the rock, enough for purchase, going up as far as she could see in the darkness that covered everything now.

The Colonel continued, thinking, "The… dead guy… must have free climbed and then belayed." He glanced back at the corpse.

"Looks like we're not the first to reach the site, Carter. And what happened to the first climber doesn't look like fun. Watch your back."

He walked back to the main part of the ledge and started to put his pack back on.

She followed, stopping him, her hand on his arm, and gestured to the corpse.

"We can't just leave him like this, sir."

He stared her down. " There's nothing we can do for him. And we need to move, now. We don't know what's watching, or who did this."

"Sir, it's Earth." They couldn't. She couldn't. Not here. Not Earth.

Something in her expression must have convinced him.

"Alright."

He pulled a tarp out of his pack and covered the body, securing it with rocks. "We'll deal with the local authorities when we're done here, assuming he's not part of the problem.

"Let's move."

The Colonel took point and grabbed the ropes, heading up sheer side of the cliff. She waited below, watching as he climbed into the darkness and out of sight. It seemed like forever. She checked her watch - not that long, not that long for a climb, even in darkness.

"Clear." The Colonel's voice sounded from above.

The rope dropped back down to her.

"Fifty foot up, Carter. There's another ledge."

The Colonel shined his flashlight onto the rock wall as she climbed.

"Not the greatest idea, but its nasty climbing in the dark. If anything is out there, they know we're here now."

She looked around her, barely able to make out the ledge where he was waiting even with the moonlight and his flashlight.

The cliff side was sheer, with little purchase. She slipped, her ankle giving way, but the friction of her boots against the rock slowed down her decent. She caught herself, re-ascended and finished the climb.

The Colonel was silent when she reached purchase, his grasp solid, literally pulling her up the wall and onto the ledge.

She broke into the silence. "What's here?"

He gestured behind them. "Cave, one exactly like Powell. I think we're at your site, Carter." He pulled her away from the entrance to the far edge of the ledge, re-conning the space.

Suddenly, green light shimmered from the entrance of the alcove, highlighting his features. They turned, and both stared at the cave.

The entities were here. And that was a game changer. There was no way she was staying back. Not now. She was going to watch his six, no matter what the orders.

The Colonel stared at her, seeming to read her thoughts. "OK, we both go."

He turned away. "Dump the pack and the gear - all of it, except weapons. And I take first."

She nodded her head and waited in the darkness, weapon ready, a green glaze covering everything around her, as they headed in to the cave.

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